Awaking on New Years Day 2014 with a light snow cascading down from the sky and the air fresh and clean seemed a good sign to start the new year off. After partying hard on non-alcoholic sparking apple cider, homemade pizza, and a rousing game of monopoly to keep us in lively spirits until midnight the girls and I decided to sleep in an extra hour and a half before heading out to the barnyard to do morning chores. We geared up well as with the snow falling on already a good foot of snow and freezing temperatures it was anticipated it would be an hour or so before we were back enjoying the warmth of the house with hot cocoa in hand.
It was a rarity to be accompanied at morning chore time by both daughters that usually took place at 5:30 am before Erin and I headed off to our day jobs and Sara still in high school and usually she spent her time with the cows in the afternoons. However, thirteen days beforehand Theodora or by her nickname Teddy, the first Hereford looking calf had been born. Sara had claimed her to be the one to halter train for her junior FFA project and in order to fulfill her contract with me had to accompany me each feeding as she could. This wasn’t an issue as Sara loved Teddy more than words could describe – who wouldn’t? Calves are the best, especially in the wintertime, all warm, soft, fluffy, and good smelling.
Protocol had it at feeding time that the cows were fed first before dealing with anything that seemed off, like not accounting for all the cows at the feeder. We had learned the hard way that if you didn’t occupy the cows with food before you investigated then you had all of them trying to be helpful and that just didn’t work in most scenarios. As I have said before, cows are herd or family animals and very curious. This morning although New Years Day was no different in our approach and so we left the lone cow by the creek bed, off in the distance alone, and forced ourselves to feed the cows first, even though we all excitedly anticipated a new calf being on the ground.
Sure, enough we were not disappointed. The cow named Little Heifer had given birth just before dawn to a healthy full blood line Hereford bull calf. He was perfect looking with all the Hereford markings right down to his four legs having white boots on them just above the hooves. I know it will come as a shock that we named him Boots, 2014 New Year’s Day calf.
What great luck in starting the year off, right? NO, I don’t believe in luck running our lives, which is good, because if I did, I’d have to say I’m one of the unluckiest people on the face of the earth. Why you ask that I don’t believe that our lives are navigated by good or bad luck? Well, luck by definition is a noun meaning success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions, or chance considered as a force that causes good or bad things to happen. Simple definition: Luck is chance or happenstance. If something happens from pure good luck, it seemingly came out of nowhere, based only on fate and not on anything you did to make it happen.
I believe that God created us all individually with brains and intelligence to use them along with free will to choose what we do with our lives. We are not simply living, enjoying or not enjoying life led by lucky or unlucky circumstances, in the throw of the dice each day to dictate our happenstance. We have a choice every day to work towards our own goals and aspirations that lead to success or unsuccess, learn lessons by our choices, and change direction if need be. Is this easy all the time, heck no, but if it were easy or lucky it would not be so rewarding or valuable when our hard work and dedication pays off.
Do I still believe there are serendipity moments in life? Most definitely YES, but life is not dictated by them. Have you heard of the four types of luck, popularized by figures like Naval Ravikant, and written about by Dr. James Austin, in his book Chase, Chance, & Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty? I had not until I began writing this blog.
The brief breakdown of each is: 1. Blind Luck, dumb luck, or pure chance in which everything in life is completely random and outside your control, like winning the lottery or a random good encounter, 2. Luck from Motion, active luck, or hustle in the more you do, the more you create, the more you move, the higher your chances of stumbling upon good fortune, such as putting yourself out there leads to a great connection, 3. Luck from Awareness, spotted luck, or attentive luck that involves recognizing opportunities that others miss because you’re paying attention, learning, and spotting patterns, and 4. Luck from Uniqueness, reputation luck, or magnetic luck in that in building a unique brand, skill, or character that makes opportunities come to you because of who you are (the hardest but most powerful type).
In my opinion, Happenstance or Luck does not lead to success. If it did then we could not take credit for any of our hard work, effort, or diligence to persevere despite adversity. Synonyms for SUCCESS are: 1. Achievement which implies accomplishing a goal, 2. Accomplishment conveying completion and attainment, 3. Conquer suggesting reaching a specific result with triumph, 4. Triumph emphasizing great success and victory, 5. Prosperity suggesting wealth and growth, 6. Fulfillment implying satisfaction and completion, 7. Attainment suggesting reaching a goal, 8. Advancement focusing on progress and growth, 9. Realization indicating bringing goals to fruition, and 10. Completion conveying finishing a task or goal.
When I look back over the successes in my amateur cow whisperer’s years it was not pure HAPPENSTANCE or LUCK but rather through my actions and dedication, every day, working towards the goals I set forth, with God’s help and mercy. I want to take credit when SUCCESS happens not attribute it to good luck, that would negate it and my very life. New Years Day 2014 would be no exception, there was great planning and work that went into the calf breeding and birthing process, so that it was successful. Although it was quite serendipitous that Boots was born on New Years Day, that was the one and only time it happened on my watch.
Even though 2014 started off with such a special serendipitous day, the year itself was not exceptional. Just a few days later the next calf born, Honey, was a dummy calf , that lived only a short time. Just like only having one New Years Day calf, I have only experienced one dummy calf also. Don’t leave your life to pure luck, instead dream, work towards goals, and find SUCCESS in the many small inconsequential moments of your life as well as the grand momentous ones because they all make up it one of a kind entirety of your life, and there’s only ONE YOU.
Welcome 2026 and a New Year filled with endless possibilities and what you make of it, after all happiness is not always success, but that’s another blog!
I leave you with Be Blessed dear readers, and I truly hope and pray life goes well for you as that is what my faith in God and his Word, the bible, lead and guide me with, not Luck!
`ACW 01.01.2026
How wonderful
Thanks Thea!