How Gratitude Creates Serendipitous Luck — The Firefighters

Learn to be in the right place at the right time.

In the last article in this miniseries, I shared an example of using gratitude to perceive luck in every day, or even bad experiences.

This time, I want to show an example of serendipitous luck occurring from a gratitude mindset.

By definition, serendipity is “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”.

So, positive coincidences.

Or happy accidents.

As with any car, it was time to refuel for gas.

Off to a great start, I know. But don’t worry, it gets cooler.

Then I drove to the gas station.

Told ya.

Because of Christmas, as I talked about in the last gratitude article, I got a coupon book provided by my family to help me during this tough financial time of my life.

And thankfully, not one but TWO of those coupons were for gas.

With the economy how it was, it wasn’t enough to fill a full tank, but it was plenty and exactly what I needed.

So once the money went through, I pulled the gas lever and hopped out only to see that my gas cap never opened up.

So I tried again.

And nothing.

I pushed on it, knowing it wasn’t that gas cap.

For some reason, that didn’t work either.

Seconds later, I realized that it might be something… seasonal.

Turns out, because it was the heart of winter, the snow had melted off my car and overnight the water seeped into the gas cap and froze it shut.

And unless I wanted to use my keys (spoiler alert: I didn’t), I had nothing to open it up.

And I was completely alone at this gas station with not enough gas to get back home and wait another day.

I was contemplating what I could do to figure this out and I was about to go inside and badger the clerk into helping me, until I was halted by a fire truck.

That’s when I remembered, that firefighters are really good at emergencies. Some would even say it’s their job.

So while they waited in the cab while their tank filled, I approached them and waved them down.

They turned in an uncanny synchronicity. Even down to tall, slender physique and Sam Elliott-inspired mustaches.

“Hey,” I started my pitch “This is probably gonna be the most simple call you’re gonna get tonight. But my gas cap won’t open, do you guys have a second to help out?”

“Oh yeah!” the driver said before turning to his partner and asking “We should have something right?”

“Yeah, we should have something,” the passenger mirrored.

They both hopped into the back and reviewed their medical supplies. It didn’t take too long for the passenger to spot and reveal some measuring tape.

The same kind you’d find in a tailor shop.

The two went up to my gas cap and flossed the measuring tape in between and to call it “a little” tension would be an overstatement.

It’s like I saw a single strand of muscle flex and the ice shattered, opening the cap wide.

We double-checked the lever to make sure it worked again, and once both our gas tanks were full, we went our merry ways.

They continued the grave of a three-consecutive-day shift and I drove home… discovering that because gas prices had dropped, I had $9 to spare.

The gratitude mindset, I believe, opened up my bandwidth to look for solutions as I talked about before, but I wanted to tell this story to explain the ability to find moments of gratitude.

Something I’ve learned after doing research on serendipity, is you need to be around and be somewhere where serendipity can occur.

And as you can see, it doesn’t have to be somewhere extravagant.

It can be as unassuming as a gas station. Because I can confidently guarantee you probably can’t “thank” your way to summoning an entire fire truck to come help you.

Some things, you just have to look at it and say:

“Huh. Just my luck!”

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