After the smoke settles, may your horseshoe fall Luck Side Up

The horse shoe at the threshold of my home (photo by Lee Holt)

Years ago, my house burned... Lots of houses burned. It was a horrific inferno that came to life in the wind, with fiery tornadoes picking and choosing which houses to devour. I wasn't home at the time, and so watched from afar as the smoke filled the air, and ashes cascaded down upon us, even miles away. Everything was gone. Every memento, picture, and letter. The beautiful ring my mom gave me from her trip to Israel and the lovely custom dresses she hand-made me with pristine precision and love. Gone was the first love letter I ever received and handmade gifts from friends, and gone were my journals and writings and artwork... and my master's thesis that was 3/4th of the way done. Worst of all, gone was my teddy bear that I had since I was a year old. I know it may sound silly, but he had been there through everything, and now he was gone. It was months before I could fall asleep and not imagine flames dancing around him, as they consumed him and finally turned him to ash, as he became of token for all I had lost. I was broken. Everything had already gone wrong that year, with the exception of being accepted to the Social Psychology graduate program at San Francisco State University (that was pretty dang cool). Now I had physically lost everything as well, ironically 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving?! Seriously? I needed to be thankful? Well, actually... yes. You see, even though it was a true tragedy, I survived, others were not so fortunate. I needed to be thankful that for me, even amongst the soot and ashes, there was hope. Thus, this terrible fire quickly became a metaphor for life.

This metaphor was solidified after receiving a gift of a photo, taken by a dear friend who decided to visit the neighborhood where my home once stood. Days after the fire she visited my home… my home where dreams began, and ended, and then changed. She visited because she wanted to see for herself if she could find any symbol of hope. She drove up the twisty road that led to my home and saw the checkerboard of houses; those consumed by the fire, and those that by a twist of fate and shift of the wind, were spared. She parked on the deserted street, barely recognizing the lot where my home once stood. She made her way up the winding stairway that led to the little in-law unit that I called home.

As she hiked around the property, she noticed the blackened curly metal frame that once was my bed. She saw the chimney to the fireplace that I was always too afraid to use (yes, the irony), and the cement steps that wound around to the back of the property and led to my door. That’s where she found it. In the threshold of my doorway had fallen an old horseshoe of mine… luck side up. The smoke still haunted the air around the neighborhood, and soot covered everything, but there in my doorway was a symbol of hope. My friend knew it was my horseshoe, and so in a moment’s thought, grabbed it, and later gave it to me.

The horseshoe stands still as a symbol of hope. For this blog, it stands as a symbol of positivity, of unity, and inspiration; it stands for finding the positive approach to things, empowering others. It stands as inspiration to help others gain insights, and to motivate friends, family, colleagues and team mates and help them reach new levels of success and happiness. Let’s face it, in any aspect of life, people are at the heart of everything, and people are best on so many levels, when they are happy and feel like a valuable contributing piece of whatever endeavor they are undertaking.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s not always easy to keep the luck side up. Even from a literal perspective, hang a horseshoe luck side down on a wall is much easier than taking the effort to make sure it’s hung properly to keep the luck from falling out. But of course, easy isn’t always better (though sometimes the simple answer is the best!).

Don’t be afraid of doing what it takes to balance your own personal horseshoe, and to protect its good-luck. Don’t be afraid of being creative and clever, and don’t be afraid of new ideas, even if no one else sees the vision at first glance. Have the courage to fight for your ideas and show others why your new and innovative approach may be exactly what is needed. Change is hard and it can be difficult to get others to see the vision, but remember that at one point, everything was a new idea. Through the years, some new ideas have fallen to the wayside and we’ve never heard of them, and that’s fine because if we're lucky (and we were open to it and smart enough to pay attention) we've learned from those ideas and why they didn't work, allowing them to be catalysts for other ideas that can change the world.... even if just your own personal world. Mistakes and errors are only failures if we fail to learn.

This blog is to designed to explore ways to break through the smoke, and find the luck, the positivity, the “ah-ha” moment, and the inspiration to help you redefine what your best can be, and help you achieve successes above your current expectations. But why the horseshoe story? Because it’s important to also realize that everyone comes with a story. Everyone has good days and bad days, and everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It is inevitable that we will get frustrated with each other and disagree, but it is crucial that we then come back together and listen to what the other has to say and the ideas they are bringing to the table. As Elwood P. Dowd says in Harvey (paraphrased), disagreements are a wonderful way to see another point of view. We need to be in-tune with others so that when they are on top of their game, we are sure to celebrate with them and when they are stumbling, we can help them stand tall. No one is good at everything, but this way we can help each other in our individual areas of growth, allow our strengths to support others where they aren't as strong, and their strengths to support where we aren't, and find how our individual strengths can fit together and create the beautiful patchwork in this quilt we call life.

And so, as we move forward, let’s respond with the luck side up…