Forrest doesn’t know why that was the first thing his mother said to him on the first day of each month, other than saying it meant good luck.

When I came down over the stairs this morning he said it to me.

“Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.”

“Riiiight…” I said back, meaning, “Oh, yeah, today is a new month which means bills will be arriving in the mail.” Some people would call that cynicism, I call it realism. Although I don’t know what saying rabbit three times means, I sense it is a superstition and because I have so much to do, like paying bills and running around like a rabbit with a coyote on my tail, I don’t have time for superstitions. But I do have time to wonder about them, so today I gave in to my curiosity and took the time to research the meaning of “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.

As it turns out, it is a superstition and here is the legend: The rabbit has the reputation for being a lucky creature because of its ability to reproduce abundantly (that’s lucky?) and because nobody has a fashion sense so incredibly poor that they would carry a whole rabbit on their key chain, they cut off the bunny’s foot in order to carry that around. It seems to me to be extremely unlucky to be a rabbit.”

The plot thickens: because a rabbit is such a lucky fellow, uttering “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” the first day of each month guarantees the speaker good luck for the remainder of that month. Imagine then how lucky the person who remembers to say it every month of an entire year, for doing so assures a year of unbelievable fortune. Unbelievable is right- unless you believe the myth, which makes it true, but only to you, but upon believing it, you open yourself up to the impossible task of performing the ritual without fail lest a month of unfortunate events land on your hare-less head. Personally, all that pressure makes me unbelievably weary so already the first day of this lovely month of February is ruined.

Then I remembered, I didn’t remember to say the magic words the first day of January and I had the good luck of landing a new writing position, which means this promise of fortune from a rabbit is true only some of the time which makes it true never, which makes good luck and good fortune not of my doing, nor a rabbits and what a blessing that is!

L.E. Hughes is a columnist, writer and owner of Diamond Corner B&B in Stratton, Maine. She welcomes your thoughts and comments: dcorner@tdstelme.net.© January 2006 Lew-Ellyn Hughes. All Rights Reserved and Retained by the Author.