Lucky or unlucky?

“Once upon a time, there was an old man who was very good at raising horses. One day, one of his horses escaped from the stable and ran into a neighboring area. When his neighbors heard the news, they came to comfort him. The old man smiled and said, “Even though I lost my horse, sometimes that is a good thing.”

A few months later, the missing horse suddenly returned, accompanied by another fine horse. The neighbors saw this and came to congratulate him, but the old man frowned and said, “I have obtained a fine horse, I am afraid this is not a good omen.”

As expected, his son loved to ride that precious horse, but one day he fell and broke his leg, becoming disabled. The neighbors came to advise him not to be too sad. The old man calmly said, "My son broke his leg, but that is not necessarily a bad thing." The neighbors all thought that the old man was so sad that he became insane.

A year later, during a festival, all the young men in the village came to participate. Unfortunately, a big fire broke out and many people died. The old man's son, because he was crippled, stayed home and escaped death. Only then did the neighbors realize that the old man's words were truly profound.

Life is like that, good and bad luck rotate, hard to predict.

But, if we understand it in another sense, is what we consider lucky/unlucky really what we think it is?

A car on the road suddenly has a flat tire, pessimists think it is unlucky, optimists think it is lucky because it was discovered early and found a place to fix it. When falling off a bike and breaking an arm, pessimists think it is unlucky, optimists sigh with relief, "Luckily it was only a broken arm and not any other part, luckily I am still alive and have not gone to see my grandparents yet." When it is raining, pessimists lament, optimists laugh because luckily they have not rushed to wash the car yet, wasting time.

For the same event or thing, why are our concepts of luck/unlucky so different? Or, after all, is luck or unlucky just a relative quality and changes depending on our perspective?

Whenever life feels so bad, should we stop and ask ourselves: Are things really that bad or are we looking at it through sunglasses that make everything darker? Why not try to look at the problem on a more positive side, looking at what we have instead of what we have lost? A friend we once trusted suddenly turned his back on us one day, be lucky to know their true face before they could stab us in the back. A person who loved us more than anything suddenly left us, be thankful for giving us the opportunity to give that precious love to someone more deserving. Everything that happens to us in life can be the opening act of a tragedy or a movie with a happy ending. The choice is yours.

I often say that in my life dictionary there are no two words “if only”. Because everything happens once and only once. If that is the case, why not turn all the moments and events in our life into precious blessings - even a pain can teach us many things. That way, this life will be worth living and much more lovable.