How to find a four-leaf clover.

Luck is one of those great mysteries of the universe. When you have it, life is great. When it's gone, you feel its absence in every decision you make.

But what is luck, really? Effervescent, it glitters in the periphery of us mere mortals, evading us even as we are being showered with its gifts. Like a person looking out from underneath an umbrella to seek the rainbow in the penumbras of rain-fractured light.

Poetry aside, I feel qualified to answer this question because I am the luckiest girl I know.

I've casually seen several shooting stars, I have a pretty good eye for finding rainbows and did I mention that I have a four-leaf clover collection?

Yes, collection.

It currently includes a five and six-leaf clover and even though I have pics, most people will still believe it didn't happen.

I find them everywhere. Once, I was on a jog in a park near my home and I found a whole tuft of them growing together. I didn't even believe it. So, I ran away. Well, jogged away.

It doesn't matter where or when or who I'm with, I look four-leaf clovers. And when I find them, after the astonishment has worn off, the first thing that people ask me is this:

"How did you find this?" And as they know me longer, "How do you keep finding these?"

My answer? Always the same. I look for them.

Four-leaf clovers are supposed to be very rare. Just ask Google. So, are shooting stars. So, are rainbows. So, is luck.

What is luck? Actively seeking what you're looking for, wherever you are. When I step out of my car after coming home for the night, I look up. When I'm walking to a friends house or in the park, I stop and stare at the ground for (what appears to be) no good reason. I look for light in unthought of places, finding that point where it travels through a prism, bringing color where white light existed only moments before.

We tend to give up on finding one shooting star or one four-leaf clover before we even begin. The infinite sky and (seemingly) infinite field of clovers are so full of what we think we know is there, we forget to see what's actually there. We forget to look up, and down and all around us. We assume that we already know what is and is not.

Luck is creating the space for opportunity to exist.

Like Will Smith once said, "If you stay ready, you never have to get ready."

That said, we're still human. We're not always ready to find what we're looking for. Luckily, there are infinite times, places, people and experiences that can bring you closer to it. Keep looking. Get ready.

It's not necessarily smart to drop your umbrella in a rain storm just to look up but it is always more interesting.