There are moments in life when you can’t explain why good things happen, other than to attribute them to pure luck. Some might also think it’s divine intervention at work. 

But I like the idea of random or chance events that happen with little or no effort and/or expectation on your part.

My dad is one of those people who has had consistent good luck throughout his life. Sometimes it was just merely from being in the right place at the right time, like when he met his future co-authors of the math textbook series while they were all teaching at Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, Indiana.

Or it was having other people give him a break. Dad could usually talk his way out of a speeding ticket. “Officer, I’m sorry. I was speeding because I am late for church after visiting my 90-year-old mother in the nursing home,” he told a policeman who stopped him once. 

It actually was the truth. 

And there was the landscaper who, despite Dad’s insistence on paying him for the work he did on his yard, never charged him. This type of thing happened to my father more than once.

In my family, we call these “Boots Full of Fish” moments.

It comes from one of my Grandpa Willie’s idiomatic expressions: “If that man fell in a lake, he’d come out with his boots full of fish.” Grandpa Willie was a simple, kind, hard-working strong-minded farmer who had a lot of common sense.

Okay, so Boots Full of Fish describes someone who is extremely lucky – to much so that even in an unfortunate situation (falling into a lake), they still end of benefiting (catching fish in their boots). Basically, though, it suggests that no matter what happens, that person always seems to come out ahead. We all know someone like that, right?

And while I can’t say that I’ve been an extremely lucky person, I have had a few Boots Full of Fish moments in the past few years.

Like, when after looking at 48 properties (and bidding on some of them) over 12 months, I found the perfect place and my offer was accepted the very same day it went on the market. I’m pretty sure the appearance of the seller’s reclusive black cat during the showing worked in my favor. 

And then the next day I won a raffle at a charity auction for a $1,000 gift certificate to my favorite custom jeweler. Which is even more serendipitous because it was shortly after my divorce and I had been contemplating having the diamond solitaire on my engagement ring made into a pendant.

To be sure, there’s also bad luck. I have a friend who’s been in multiple fender benders over the past 10 years where it’s always the other driver’s fault. Bam. Some guy runs a red light and t-bones him. Crunch. Another woman rear-ends him because she’s looking at her phone and doesn’t see him stop. Whack. A teenager sideswipes him while he’s parallel parking. That dude is one unlucky guy.

While luck can be unpredictable, I guess how you respond to it matters more than the luck itself. By staying prepared, open-minded, and resilient, you can navigate bad luck with strength and make the most of your Boots Full of Fish moments.