As I walked my dog, Bear, on this lovely Spring morning, I was aware of the fullness of the day.
The air was filled with sounds of Spring. The clouds laid heavy overhead, grey and full of rain ready to burst. The many colours of Spring flowers popped vivid and alive against the grey background. In hurrying to complete the walk before the rain, I stepped quickly off the curb approaching the car.
Glancing toward the ground, a shiny penny at my feet caught my eye. “Ah! A ‘Lucky Penny’!” My initial thought was to pick it up out of habit. My second thought was to leave it there. We may choose to ignore the penny out of our haste and busyness to stop. “I don’t have time.” We may choose to ignore the penny from our ego of self-importance and elevated thinking, “It’s just a penny.”
Then, in an instant, a very old familiar story came to mind. It was a story that my father, Daniel, always told me about his father, who was also named Daniel.
Daniel came from Hungary when he was a young man. Daniel was a blacksmith by trade. He was very meticulous in working with his hands. He forged and crafted all of his tools. His mind was strong and sharp as the objects which he forged.
During the years of the Great Depression, whenever a shiny object lay in his path, he always bent to the Earth to pick it up. He examined it carefully, dusted it off and place it in his pocket. He had a detailed system to categorize these lost objects after sorting by their type. He placed them in small glass containers that he hung by nailing the lids to a shelf. This efficiency saved him time in that he was able to see each separately. He was a walking testimony to Einstein’s saying, “Genius is in the detail”.
This was a story that contained many lessons for me as a child.
It taught me the importance of humility, conscientiousness, organization, and creativity. It taught me that in scarcity there is also abundance. It taught me that I have the choice to determine what I want to gather from this life and how I choose to use what I gather along the way. How do you gather your lucky pennies and sprinkle your blessings on others?
Some may think comes from ‘scarcity thinking’ and yet others may view the painstaking detail and conscientiousness as preparation for future innovation. Some may see the gratitude in humble gifts as signs of the way the Earth continues to support us. If we are open to seeing the gifts of each moment, we can generate the momentum to continue to create. Another great teacher, Dave Ellis, coined an idea: “Create Creation”. By the way, I did take the time to pick up the shiny lucky penny. I looked at it, dusted it off, and put it in my pocket. I came home and wrote this blog.
I am choosing to make this a “Luck Penny Day” all day long.
- How do you continue creation throughout your day?
- How do you use your gifts?
- What does success look like for you?
