How much is just coincidence and how much is luck?

This week’s Crescent Commons musings brought to you by: The Who’s Tommy, Original Broadway Cast Recording.

This past week I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of luck...How much of our lives is just coincidence or are there more powerful forces at work? Not surprisingly, I’ve spent a great portion of my adult life feeling unlucky. What else could possibly be to blame for being diagnosed with MS, if not for truly horrific luck? Since the cause of MS remains unknown, it’s difficult to attribute it to any one concrete reason. Therefore it can be deceptively easy to blame all of life’s trials on MS. Living my life this way has been largely negative, obviously. It just seemed that since my body was betraying me, the world at large was as well. But oftentimes with a setback, I’ve experienced a ‘blessing in disguise’ such as needing ankle surgery and losing a work position only to be reassigned to a much better and fulfilling job...Or the time when I was borrowing a power wheelchair in order to work and was gifted with one of my own by a sweet patient. It’s this theme of unexpected luck that I think has brought me to Crescent Commons. The disease I hate so much has also led me to a wonderful place to live, with neighbors and new friends all around me. I believe that we, the residents of Crescent Commons, have won a lottery of sorts because we now get to live in a close-knit community with built-in support always just a door (or two!) down the path. I am certain that our burdens in life, whether it’s MS or Autism or Down Syndrome have caused us all grief, sadness, frustration, or even annoyance at the very least. Personally, I would NEVER have associated my disease with luck of any sort. But that same disease brought me to the loveliest apartment anyone could wish for! It brought me across the path from my new friends, Robert and Steve. We've gone grocery shopping together already and it was fun. I doubt the average person finds going to the supermarket to be a giddy experience but it was for us- because we were no longer isolated.

Just the other night, we denizens of Crescent Commons gathered together in the common room for a ‘mixer’ hosted by the Allendale Women's Club. We nibbled on snacks and treats while meeting more of our neighbors in the building as well as in the community. It certainly seemed like a great time was had by all. I chatted with my new neighbor Kathi and found we had some things in common. We are from different generations and backgrounds but we shared similar stories of excitement to be living in this new place. She told me of how much her family wanted this opportunity for her and I told her how my family wanted the same for me. And then we shared how absolutely wonderful it was to be here. How lovely it was to socialize a bit, to chat with other folks... At that moment I was again feeling lucky.... Not for the disease but for the fact it afforded me the chance to meet these new people. And when you think about it, just how often does the average person get gifted with a built-in community of friends?

Now I know a few more people who know what it feels like to crave independence but not know how to achieve it. But somehow they found about Crescent Commons and were gifted with their very own piece of the world, just as I was. So, NO-I don't feel lucky to have MS...but I feel absolutely lucky that it has brought me here.