And a Penny in Your Shoe.

For as long as I can remember my mother has picked up pennies. And nickels, dimes, quarters. As kids my brother and I would walk beside her in parking lots or along sidewalks and marvel at her ability to spot these coins, no matter how scuffed, dirty, and hidden in plain sight they were. Sometimes she’d joke that whatever we found would go toward our college funds, other times that we’d fund a trip to Hawaii with our findings. But of course, it was really always for luck.

I carried this “tradition” of picking up coins from the ground when I left home for college. In fact, during my first semester at school, I distinctly remember having a very near miss with a T trolley car in an effort to rescue a dime on the above-ground train tracks one afternoon.

As a 31 year old, I still hunt for that loose change on the ground. If I spot it, it is utterly impossible for me to walk away, ignoring it. There’s money! On the ground! And of course, there’s luck. My Mother still picks up every coin she spots too. Right now she’s got a collection jar in her kitchen, one she’s keeping for Stephen while he’s deployed; sending luck his way with every penny she finds.

On my end, I think of my mother every time I spot a coin on the ground. Always, I make a silent wish when I scoop up my found lucky money before sticking it in a coat pocket. It’s been a long Fall and lately these days, I could use just a pinch of luck thrown my way too.

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I have a serious boot addiction. To be honest, a Fall season rarely passes by without me making yet another boot purchase, one almost always justified with the same sentence: “Well, we live in a city where boots are a necessity! It’s not like I won’t wear them.” And then, boom, I click purchase. So it went with my most recent pair, ones that were so delightful and gorgeous and so on sale and utterly my style, that it truly would have been a crime to pass them up. When they arrived it was love at first sight and we’ve been rather inseparable ever since. It wasn’t until the third or fourth time wearing them though, that I even glanced at the soles of my shoes. (I mean, really, how often does one look at the bottom of their shoes?) But there, on the bottom of each boot was a quote: “Find a penny, pick it up, and all day you’ll have good luck.” And on my left boot, directly in front of the heel? A lucky penny, inserted into the sole.

Serendipitous, indeed. And maybe just a little bit lucky, too.