Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Another Pollyanna by Brenda Whiteside

Oh, argh, so I'm a writer and I had to look up what fortuitous meant. I had an idea, but I don't always trust myself. I once used femme fatale incorrectly and embarrassed myself.

Fortuitous - I like saying it and it flows pretty easy on the keyboard. In my mind, I thought of lucky. According to dictionary.com, that is an evolutionary definition. Maybe because it sounds a lot like fortunate. Originally, it meant happening or produced by chance. Not all circumstances of chance are lucky which means the word definitely went through some changes if now it's identified with good luck.

Which brings me around to luck. I've always felt pretty lucky in life, or as I've told my husband, we've led a charmed life. He laughs at me (not particularly mirthfully) because my definition of charmed and his definition are not quite the same. My son calls me a Pollyanna. But really, whenever something disheartening has happened in our lives, something good comes along to right us. I call that charmed. It might not be what we wanted or expected but it works out.

We're in Arizona now, but we spent nearly twenty great years in Minnesota before moving back here. Speaking of luck, we knew we'd love it there. When my husband went to interview it was the 13th of the month and on the plane he sat in row 13. He checked into his hotel room on the 13th floor. He took the job and they provided an apartment for six months - apartment number 1313. I found a job four months later and started work on the 13th. We considered this a series of fortuitous events.

May you have a fortuitous day!


Visit Brenda at www.brendawhiteside.com.
She blogs on the 9th and 24th of every month at http://rosesofprose.blogspot.com
She blogs about prairie life and writing at http://brendawhiteside.blogspot.com/

9 comments:

Margo Hoornstra said...

Brenda, love your optimism! Yep. When bad things happen to us a good thing ALWAYS follows. Happy lucky thirteen.

Brenda Whiteside said...

You just have to have your eyes open, Margo!

Jannine Gallant said...

Funny, I just wrote a scene where a character loses his livelihood but says something good always comes of a bad situation. You just have to keep a positive outlook that it will all work out eventually.

Barbara Edwards said...

I'm a cup half full person myself. It makes my DH crazy.

Liz Flaherty said...

LOL. I'm another Pollyanna, but I didn't know what fortuitous meant, either. (It does type easily, though, doesn't it?) Like all those 13s!

Alison Henderson said...

I'm an eternal optimist too. How else could we be writers? The frequent rejection could really get you down if you didn't think something better was just around the corner.

Brenda Whiteside said...

I think Alison hit on it. We have to have a Pollyanna outlook to withstand the years of writing and not get anywhere quick (some of us anyway)!

Leah St. James said...

Cool story, Brenda! I, too, am an optimist. I think you have to look for the blessings in life, just to keep some sanity.

Brenda Whiteside said...

Good to hear, Leah. Keep it up!