Lucky Charms for Readers & Writers

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light ~ and may good luck pursue you each morning and night. – Irish Blessing

Lucky charms are our topic today - no, not that kind. The other kind! 

Susan here, while some of the Wenches are off gallivanting around Britain—well, they’re attending the RNA conference in Leeds, UK, and having a grand time, and they're sure to bring back some amazing travel tales.

Meanwhile, it's Friday the 13th - so let's stir up a little luck just in case!

I’m working away at the WIP and other projects, and feeling in need of a little extra luck to stay on track and make progress at the moment. I keep some things in my office that I'm fond of, that make me feel good, calm, creative, and/or centered, and I like to think some of them bring me particular luck--like the special things that have been in my workspace for years, or were gifts from friends, things that spark a little inspiration or represent good luck. I'm partial to dragons and fairies, angels and crystals. I'm not superstitious, but I like to tap a little feng shui energy, a little good fortune ... and since I spend hours at my desk, I may as well have pretty things to look at! If they bring in good fortune and creative inspiration, all the better.

Just now on my desk and arranged around the office on bookshelves, I have: 

- a collection of angels on a shelf, and a few others watching out for me (I’ve collected angels for years, so there are lots of them in the office, around the house, packed away with the Christmas stuff, etc.)

~ a fairy in a snow globe - she's been sitting on my desk for years

~ crystals and stones, including an amethyst geode and a chunk of lapis lazuli, particularly good for writers

~ a brass dragon in the east for good luck, an ivory netsuke dragon that is beautiful, fierce, and cute all at once, and a little dragonfly dish that catches paperclips and little thingies 

~ a quote or two taped to the monitor - currently “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” --Mother Teresa

~ a triskele/triple spiral, a Celtic symbol of creativity, as a drink coaster for endless cups of tea 

- a beautiful butterfly-and-evil-eye hanging that was a gift from a friend, and if it watches out for bad luck, that's good luck! 

~ a basket to one side of the desk where I toss everything that gets in my way and distracts me -- and I figure it’s good luck to corral a little clutter, and good luck if I manage to find anything in there at all . . . .

Do you keep a few special things around your workspace for inspiration and good luck? What do you always keep near you when you're working, writing, reading?

~ Susan 

Comments

[Kareni]

Thanks for sharing your collection of lucky charms with us, Susan. I don't have any charms per se; however, I do like to keep chocolate nearby when I'm reading. The problem is that it keeps disappearing....

[Maryellen Webber]

Like you Susan, I keep angels around me. I was seriously ill many years ago and surrounded myself with angels for strength and protection. The quote by Mother Teresa is one of my favorites.

[Janice]

I have always had toys on my desk. Doctor Who has Companions, so do I. Right now I have Cow and R2D2. Cow does nothing except be Cow; R2D2 is a break timer.

In my pocket I generally have a certain touchpiece - it's a sterling silver cross with an angel on it. I got it out of the Sundance catalog back in the day. It has no significance other than as a comfort object, but I feel funny when it's not there.

[Michelle H]

I'm such a hoarder of tiny little things that I love, and friends and family have been no help in that dept. ;/ I keep all kinds of ephemera. I keep 'stuff' on multiple cork boards, from photos, postcards, tickets (the average stuff) to beautifully constructed very small raggedy Anne and Andy I bought at a quilt shop 30 years ago, to maybe the item that gives me such wonder and joy when I look at it...a perfectly preserved cicada I found in our yard back in Texas.

Now, with all that said, I might actually have better luck if I cleared my workspace off and faced a clean-slate environment (someday.)

I loved everyone else's answers, and yours Susan, especially the netsuke! And who wouldn't have good luck with chocolate around?

[Sue McCormick]

I have keepsakes all over my house. I never thought of them in terms of luck; but because they remind me of past happiness and of friends, I will now realize the they are charms. So thanks for the insight.