it's july already? white rabbits!

It's July First. How did that happen? Oh well.

Hope you said your "White Rabbits x 3" this morning for good luck all month.

"White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits!"

white rabbits! white rabbits! white rabbits!

It's June 1st — don't forget to say your "White Rabbits (x3)."

lucky

I've never thought Friday the 13th was an unlucky day. In fact, aren't all the unlucky things supposed to be turned on their head on the 13th? Sort of reverse mojo?

I am respectful, sometimes wary of the number 13, however - could you make that 12 or 14 acupuncture needles, please? I also don't want to walk under a ladder - but that's just practical, right? Certainly many so-called superstitions are what we have accepted through the ages as good advice, such as:

• An apple a day keeps the doctor away
• Eating fish makes you smart
• A lock of hair from a baby's first haircut should be kept for good luck I don't know about luck, but it's a powerful totem and wonderful keepsake. My mom still has a lock of my hair somewhere to prove I was a strawberry blond baby
• To find a penny heads up, brings good luck In today's economy, any extra cash can't hurt!
• Washing a car will bring rain - that's more of a Murphy's Law than a superstition

When you believe in things
That you don't understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain't the way
Stevie Wonder

I'm trying to keep a balance between the fun beliefs that I have decided to add to my personal repertoire through the years and the fears that try to crowd in, like money or health anxieties. Every day is a work in progress. Good luck!

white rabbits x3

Did you say "white rabbits, whites rabbits, white rabbits" first thing today for luck? Or "rabbit rabbit" or any of the very many variations? I remembered to. It's a superstition that is believed to have originated in England, although no one agrees to how far back it goes.

My mom is British - she was born in Folkestone - but she doesn't remember the superstition. Her British father and her American mother lived most of their married life in Paris until my grandmother and my mother left Europe when my mother was the age of five. My grandmother was able to use the War as an excuse for them to move in with her family, although the real reason was that my grandmother was divorcing my grandfather. A big deal and quite difficult to be a single mom in the 1930s (not that it's a walk in the park, today, either). I have to hand it to my grandmother, who managed to raise my mom, work, and still maintain a positive outlook on life. She was never one to reveal her emotions in a big way, unlike the other, Italian/Sicilian members of my family, but she is definitely responsible for my work ethic and my iron-willed determination (that can sometimes be a little heavy on the iron, but, that's how it goes.)

White rabbits x3 may be British in origin, but I think my desire to incorporate it into my personal collection of superstitions probably does come from the Sicilian/Italian in me. Wives tales, folklore and superstitions seemed to part of the daily vocabulary of my father's family. Here are some of my favorites:

• Throw salt over your shoulder if you spill it
• Don't split a pole when walking with someone
• No hats on the bed!
• Knock on wood if you speak of something that might bring bad luck
• Finding a heads up penny bring good luck
• And of course...