A closeup shoot of a bunch of leafs in the shape of heart.

The Power of Presence: Finding a Four-Leaf Clover and Discovering What Really Matters

May 27, 2023 | Erin Bettis | HAPPINESS, PARENTING

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
-Louis Pasteur

I don’t consider myself lucky. Well, most of the time. I mean, I feel lucky that Brandon and I found each other, and that we have two beautiful, healthy girls – if you want to call it luck. I suppose “luck” bears many name tags – fate, blessings, fortune, and destiny. Outside of my family, however, I feel it would take a magnificent cosmic intervention for me to, say, win a contest I so badly wanted to win, or to actually have a good hair day. The magnificent cosmic intervention thing actually happened. I found my first four-leaf clover.

One day in late January, we had an unseasonably warm afternoon. I dressed Whitney in shorts that were too short because we hadn’t needed to shop for spring and summer clothes yet. She wore last year’s Fourth of July shirt, and Kennedy sported Whitney’s hand-me-down sandals that flopped around on her tiny feet. We headed to our spacious backyard to kick a soccer ball and dig up muddy weed gardens. We loved the weather and couldn’t believe we had a break from the cold, austere, wet days of weeks prior. It was the first afternoon following a long string of miserably cold days where we could breathe, ahhh, let’s blow this popsicle stand and get the heck outside!

I plopped the girls into the wagon and decided to kill time by walking laps around the yard with them. It’s a huge yard, so this activity keeps us engaged for a bit. On our first lap, I spotted a little vibrantly green patch and decided to halt the wagon adventure. “Look, girls! It’s a clover patch. Let’s see if we can find a four-leaf clover.” (Yes, I really do sound obnoxiously like Carol Brady in real life.) I hoisted the girls up and out of the wagon to begin our hunt down. It was upon first glance when I found it. A tiny four-leaf clover sprouted slightly above the rest as if to say, “Here I am! I’ve been here all along waiting patiently for you to find me. And you did. You found me!” What a little bud of joy that was. I squealed like I was 8-year-old again catching New Kids of the Block’s Please Don’t Go Girl on the radio. Pure excitement. I had always wanted to find a four-leaf clover, and that day I did. I just had to look around me.

My find may have been due to something other than luck. Perhaps it wasn’t a magnificent cosmic intervention and only happened because I lived in the moment. Often I find myself planning, wishing, hoping, waiting, waiting, planning full steam ahead that I forget to stop and witness what is around me. I get stressed and let the pressure of my to-do list weigh heavily on my shoulders. And during those times, I miss out on the beautiful little shamrocks. After all, I didn’t force myself to sit for hours in the clover patch, wading through 10,000 little guys until I found the single genetically mutated growth that caused it to sprout an unlikely fourth leaf. It was just there to be seen. Right there in my very own backyard. And I was present at that moment to accept its beauty and the potential luck I believe it will show me.