They tell me a four leaf clover is a sign of good luck.

There’s this lady I know. We went to high school together.  She is always smiling, always bubbling over with happiness.  A cheerleader.  She probably didn’t cry a single tear  in high school.

I didn’t know she found four-leaf clovers.  It was a well-kept secret I suppose.  Now, she hunts them down, plucks them out of the ground, photographs them and puts pictures on the computer.

Not just one now and another later.  I’m talking about a four leaf clover every day.  Some days, there’s three or four, for us to see.

I accused her of planting them under a full moon.  She laughed at me, then sent a photo of four leaf clovers she found that afternoon.

We have a large patch of clover in one corner of our place in the country.  A lot of clover.  Usually I cut it down with my lawn mower.

It’s springtime, the clover is starting to grow.  I took a stool and sat the midst of all that white clover.  I wanted to find my own four leaf clover.  I wanted to change my luck a bit.

I sat there, elbows on my knees, chin in my hands, peering down at the ground.  I’m glad my grandchildren didn’t see Grandpa sitting in the middle of a corner of the yard, staring at the  grass.  Two of them are already saying Grandpa is silly.  One may ask me if I was in time-out.

I looked and looked, reaching down and moving to see the new growth, hoping there was a four leaf clover staring back at me. No such luck.  I moved the stool three or four giant steps.  I repeated my search.

I hunted like this for about a half hour.  I didn’t find a four leaf clover.  Bugs, yes.  Ants, yes.  Little bitty worms or something like that, yes.  Four leaf clover, no.

I don’t do plant science.  I have no idea where or how four leaf clover develops.  There’s ten or twenty million little white topped clover plants and a hundred billion or so three leaf clovers.  Somewhere, somehow, a four leaf clover pops up in their midst.  My friend looks down at the ground and finds each and every one.

They say finding a four leaf clover is a sign of good luck.   Just  find one and your luck will change.

I don’t know.  I’ve never found one.  I’ve looked.   Even my wife has found them. She puts them on the kitchen counter for me to see.

I could use some good luck now and again, you know.  A bit of the luck of the Irish, that sort of thing could come in handy.

Maybe I’ve had luck and didn’t realize it.  Maybe I have looked down and the four leaf clover was there.  Maybe I didn’t realize what I was seeing.  Maybe this or maybe that.  Maybe I just don’t know.

Or, maybe luck doesn’t need a four leaf clover.

Please feel free to share.  I welcome your comments and thoughts.  Contact Mike Windham at amwindham100@gmail.com.  You can follow my blog at mikewindham.com.