Making Luck Happen

As I make my posts on Facebook, I frequently get comments saying things like “You are so lucky” or, “I’m so jealous”, and “I wish I could do that”, and it is something I have given alot of thought to.

Some of my FB friends have picked up on this, one commented that there is no luck in it, you make luck happen by opening the doors not sitting behind them (thank Geraint Jones (Gee) for that one – given me the title for this blog), and another comment is that its about making choices at different life stages (thank you Andrea Stuart). I usually comment that you have to take a deep breath and step out of your comfort zone.

I guess I can’t dismiss the concept of luck totally, I do have some of this on my side. Firstly, I’m very healthy which is great, although this isnt all down to luck, I don’t smoke, I generally eat a healthy diet and I have always been active which certainly helps. Secondly, I had the freedom to make the decisions I had – but again, this isnt all luck – I have worked hard for a career for myself where I have earned a professional salary, I had my children fairly young and worked hard to be the best mum I could to raise 3 healthy intelligent young adults who could cope with their mum exploring the world. You get my drift!

If you are not a follower of this blog, I will update you a little. I have raised a family of 3 gorgeous young adults,, built a career as a midwife (was a former school teacher too) then in 2011 I made a big life decision and moved to Queensland, Australia to try to make a life there (I did pop on a boat on the way there and circumnavigated the coast of Britain and qualified as a coastal skipper before I caught the plane!)

It took a very deep breath indeed to leave behind many family and friends, but it took a much deeper breath to also leave behind a man I was deeply in love with, at least I tried to leave him behind, but he was very much with me in my mind on the other side of the world. I wouldn’t have left the UK if we had made a decision to make a life together, but unfortunately, he didnt feel he could offer me any future as my feelings for him were not reciprocated. Before I departed, I said the words “if you decide you do want me in your life, you have to come and get me”

I loved living in North Queensland, I had a fabulous job, lived in a lovely home, went sailing every week on the gorgeous Coral Sea, scuba dived on weekends off on one of the top 10 dive sites in the world and made many good friends, and to top it all, I had both my daughters with me in the distant land down unda!

Its sometimes said that you don’t know what you have until its gone, and within six months the love of my life travelled to Australia to visit me to talk about me returning to the UK to be with him. Six months after this, I left Australia, (popping to the Caribbean on the way home to sail the Windward Islands) and arrived back in the UK in time for Christmas to make a life together with my man.

The reaction from my close family and friends to this decision was enormously supportive. They knew how much I loved him and that it was something I had to do to see if it would work. I knew I was taking a bold step once more as I left Australia, I laughed and spoke the words “if it doesnt work out for me in the UK, I will sail back to Australia”

I had a wonderful 16 months back in the UK, catching up with friends and family and made many new friends and had a ball. However, Lady Luck wasnt on my side in terms of making the relationship work, despite the hard work on both sides, it was with a very heavy (and broken) heart that I decided I had to leave and make a new adventure for myself.

It wasnt by luck that I booked myself a flight to Bali, nor was it luck that set me on a course to complete my Dive Master and Dive Instructor certifications, It was a decision which took me out of my comfort zone by deciding to leave the safety of a secure job, which although stressful, gave me a cyclical lifestyle where I lived for weekends off and holidays where I met up with my friends and had a great time, but dreaded returning to work, and looked forward to the next time off (does this life cycle sound familiar to you?)

Having finished my dive training, I started looking at flights to Australia, then remembered my words before I left, so, here I am…….on a boat……sailing back to Australia! Again, this isn’t by luck, but by thinking out of the box and looking around for opportunities to achieve what makes me happy

It wasn’t by luck that I had subscribed to a website where boat owners needed crew to help them sail, and it wasn’t through luck that I had qualifications and experience in sailing and diving that gave me a good CV. However, I have to say that some degree of luck did bring a lovely guy called Daryl to send me a message asking if I would like to join him on his trip and help him sail his gorgeous yacht (thank you Daryl!) I will write more about my sailing trip in this blog shortly.

So it is that I find myself on a beautiful boat, and have spent 3 weeks so far sailing from Malaysia down through Indonesia. We plan to continue the trip heading eastwards through the many islands of Indonesia diving along the way, then down to Australia, arriving in Darwin, then along the North East Australian coast where I will begin another chapter of my life.

This trip is giving me alot of time to relax and to think about life, my decision making and what is important to me. My heart is gradually healing, it is taking time, but as it heals I am making the very best of every day that dawns – this is not by luck!

As I write this, the sun is rising on another glorious day, a large pod of dolphins have just swam past the boat, I’m about to eat breakfast then go for a dive and hope to see the friendly turtle daryl and I met yesterday at 16 meters under. Tomorrow we are traveling to Borneo to trek in the jungle and look for wild orangutans…… How’s your luck?