A Mama Contemplates Her Karma

As I knocked over the salt shaker for the second time today it occurred to me that maybe I haven’t manipulated my luck possibilities. Maybe the reason I had a colicky baby is because I chose not to forward that e-mail five years ago to all of the people that I know. Or the reason that I had a second colicky baby was because I couldn’t remember which shoulder I was supposed to throw the spilt salt over.

Maybe the reason my second son only slept for a string of thirty minutes at a time twice a day until he was two-years old when he stopped napping altogether was because I chased his older brother under that ladder when daddy was painting the house.

Now that I think about it I saw a broken mirror in front of my house once. Is this seven years by way of association?

All in all I feel pretty lucky with my beautifully energetic and thriving children. But…like anything…there are days that I wonder. I tried to do everything that I could to shape them. I read all of the books about raising kids, I changed my diet while nursing, I held them when they cried, I read to them at night (even in utero), I skipped coffee while pregnant, I laid in bed for two weeks under doctor’s orders, I wore an oxygen mask during birth, I fed them from my body every two hours for the first six months of both of their lives. And yet, some of the behavior is unexplainable.

It must be luck.

By Jennifer O’Shaughnessy