Lucky in Love

Sharon used to drive her husband crazy on road trips. She wanted to stop at every historical marker, every kitschy display, every vegetable stand. He just wanted to get to their destination as quickly as possible.

The divorce didn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Road trips were just one symptom of a bigger problem.

Once everything was final, Sharon started driving aimlessly on the weekends. She loved being able to stop whenever she wanted, with no one sighing or groaning or tapping his watch. Sure, she got lonely sometimes. She hoped she’d eventually find a partner who liked exploring the world with her. In the meantime, she got out on the back roads as much as possible, trying to make up for all the interesting stops she’d been forced to pass up before.

Of course she stopped when she saw the wooden head in the yard. How could she not?

Sharon pulled her car onto the shoulder, parked and got out to take a closer look. Someone had carved it, apparently, from a large chunk of tree trunk. It was roughly done but somehow magnetic. Sharon didn’t feel able to take her eyes off it.

“One-fifty,” a voice said.

Sharon straightened up in a hurry. A man in jeans and flannel had come around the side of the house while she’d been distracted. He didn’t look dangerous, but Sharon backed up a step anyway, just in case. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to trespass. I just couldn’t help stopping to look at this.”

“It’s for sale,” he said. “A hundred and fifty bucks. Heck, I could go one twenty-five.”

“Oh, I couldn’t. I live in an apartment. It’s good work, though. You’re talented.”

He laughed. “I didn’t make it. I was just driving around one day and saw it in the yard of the guy who did make it. He told me it was one-fifty, and it would make me lucky in love. Figured I couldn’t pass that up.”

Sharon smiled. “And did it work?”

“Not a bit. That’s why I decided to sell it. Maybe it’ll work better for you.”

“I doubt that.” But as soon as she said it, she wondered.

“One hundred, and I’ll haul it out and put it on your balcony.”

She hesitated. “Did you say you were driving around and had to stop when you saw this?”

“Sure. Same as you, I guess. How could you drive by something interesting and not stop?”

“That’s right,” she said. She realized she was grinning. “I guess maybe I could find space for it on my balcony, if it’s going to make me lucky in love. And if you haul it out there, the least I could do is treat you to dinner.”

“Well, I wouldn’t turn that down.”

She held out her hand. “I’m Sharon.”

“Mike,” he said, and they shook.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Mike,” she said. And oh, it really was. 

Everyday Miracles

When Jenny was at a crossroads in her life, when she didn’t know what to do, she liked to take long walks in the woods. She found she could think more clearly when surrounded by trees—maybe it had to do with all the extra oxygen.

She had a handful of places she liked to walk, but one time, she found a new trail and decided to take it. She walked along, not really watching where she was going, and wrestled with her problem. Should she keep pressing ahead with her current relationship, which was heading into territory she’d never experienced before, or should she break up with her boyfriend and go back to the simpler life she was more familiar with?

Eventually she realized she’d spent too much time thinking and not enough time paying attention, and she’d walked farther than she usually did. She still had to turn around and walk the same distance back to get to her car. She thought she’d better do that, so she’d know she had enough energy left to finish. But something stopped her. She wanted to go a little farther, to see what was around the bend in the trail. The total distance was farther than she’d ever walked before, but maybe it was time to push herself.

Jenny came around the bend and stopped in her tracks. A doe stood on the trail, not five feet away. She looked up from cropping grass and stared at Jenny. Jenny stared back, afraid even to breathe. She’d never been this close to a deer before. The moment hung suspended.

Then it was over. The doe leaped into the woods and left Jenny standing on the trail, stunned. If she had turned around when she wanted to, she would have missed this. Since she had pressed on past the point of comfort, she got to witness something amazing.

The encounter felt like a sign, a miraculous answer to her problem. She would press on.

Jenny’s boyfriend asked her to marry him only a few weeks later, and Jenny said yes. They were very happy together. Jenny started to take long walks not because she needed time to think through problems, but because being in the woods made her happiness even fuller.

She often walked on the trail where she’d seen the doe. Over time she realized something that made her a little sad—she almost always saw deer somewhere along that trail.

“Why on earth would that make you sad?” her husband asked. “I thought you loved seeing deer.”

“I do. But the first day I saw one, I thought it was a miraculous sign, just for me. I married you based on thinking that.”

“Well, it worked out alright, didn’t it?”

“Yes. But I thought it was something special. I thought I got to see a miracle. Now I know it was just an ordinary, every day thing.”

“Or maybe it was a miracle,” he said, and kissed her on the nose. “Maybe when you take a risk, you end up getting to see miracles every day.”