A Penny

So now it's time to get back to writing. Which, I have to admit, I haven't done! Surprised?

Do you see how I manage to distract myself? Do you see how I can find other things to put out as stumbling blocks? Well, wait. In all fairness, I have had a few things going on. I have to give myself the small amount of credit to just being consistent in the time I've made right here to keep up with this blog. Small amount but something. Now push it a bit more. So today, I think I'll just post something I wrote a few weeks back. It's a true story and not too terribly long so you should get through it quickly. Here it is:

A Penny

My youngest son, Dante (23), and I were in the car to drive home after a weekend out-of-town. I had registered and run a distance race that I had never attempted before and after much anxiety about training, being out-of-town, and a turn in the weather for the worse, I had managed the run. Dante had been most supportive. He was a great companion to have along for celebrating after I had completed my distance goal. Just before we were about to leave the next morning, I mentioned that I had been thinking about a penny I had seen on the ground during my run.
“A penny?” he asked.
“Yes. I said, “You’ve heard about picking up a penny?”
“Yeah, it's supposed to give you good luck.”
“Yes, if it’s heads up, I said. But what if it’s tails up?”
“I don’t know…you get bad luck?”
I explained to him what a good friend had told me. If you see a penny and its heads up, it’s good luck - so pick it up. But if you see a penny tails up, you turn it over to heads and leave it for the next person.
Now, I’m not much on believing my luck comes from finding pennies, but the thought of passing it on to someone else by merely turning it over had become intriguing to me. I’ve turned over tails up pennies ever since my good friend told me this. What was the harm?
My problem came when I saw a tails up penny while running. I struggled with the decision to go back in order to turn it over. It was too far for me to go back. It had come up on me too quickly. I explained my dilemma to my son and how I had been thinking about it as we were on our way to leave.
He said, “Sounds like we need to go flip a penny.”
We would be passing the run route on our way out-of-town. He didn’t hesitate, just took it in and told me that’s what we would do. We drove to the area that was closest to where I had seen the penny and parked. We both got out of the car and walked along the race route scanning the ground. It was cool. A breeze blew out over the bay that ran beside the pavement we were walking. Side by side we walked and after a while I knew we had walked farther than where the penny should have been. I finally admitted that it wasn’t there and we turned around to head back to the car.
I said, “At least we got a chance to walk along the water.”
We walked on silently but I abruptly turned my attention to Dante when he pulled his hand out of his pocket and held his palm out full of loose change. We stopped and I looked at him.
“Take it, mom.”
“What?”
“The penny.”
I didn’t move or answer him, but I looked up at him confused.
“Take the penny and put it down heads up.”
I was reluctant and didn’t move.
“What’s the worst that can happen…that there are two pennies out here?” He shrugged as I took the penny, put in on the ground, and smiled.
“You’ll know one of them is heads up, mom.”

It’s funny how a penny can have so much value.
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That's all for today. Have a good one.

TT