04/22/2026: Auspicious Friends and Circumstances
I don’t know if I truly believed in spirit animals before a week ago. But whatever compelled me to pick up the carved figurine of a ladybug in that store somehow felt connected to all the times in my life that this little insect has made an appearance.
When I was a kid, I used to spend sunny afternoons catching as many ladybugs as I could in a jar. Once the jar was full, I would climb onto my trampoline and gently release them, and as I carefully jumped around them, I would watch as they all flew away, one by one.
As I grew older, I would notice every time a ladybug would land on my arm, and I would deem the day a lucky one. Ladybugs always appeared around my grandma’s house too, crawling along the window sill of the vast picture window overlooking my grandpa’s land where I sat at the table and wondered how it got there when there were infinite window sills and even more blades of grass they could have lighted upon instead.
For some reason, I wanted a ladybug tattoo in college, though it never came to pass. At the time, it represented sisterhood and friendship to me, ironically at a time where most people around me weren’t genuine. And then years passed and I walked into a store, and I chose the ladybug over the butterfly without much thought. It was a simple either-or situation, and in that moment I would have been happy with either choice I made. The moment it was no longer trivial, however, was when I read the little card that came with my figurine and I researched it some more.
According to the powers that be—also known as the internet—not only does a ladybug symbolize luck and wishes and dreams coming to fruition, but it’s also a reminder to slow down, to protect and live your truth, and to create your own good fortune by being grateful for small wonders in your life. According to my figurine’s card, the ladybug allows for a turnabout of the situations in your life, making love, luck and happiness manifest themselves under auspicious conditions. When I also learned that spirit animals are usually present throughout our lives in some way or another, that’s when I started to think that this stuff might actually carry some weight.
After all the times this miniscule insect has appeared in my presence, and with all these big life changes I’m navigating now, it’s hard not to see all this as some sort of sign from the universe that I will find success and happiness, and my dreams will eventually come true—albeit it in strange and unexpected ways. Life really does have a way of giving us grace and equal or greater adversity when we need it most.
And though I’ve entered a more trying season in my life as I try to find my footing again, I can’t help but think that I’m still right where I’m supposed to be. All I can do now is continue forward, with the help of my little auspicious friend, with the knowledge that she’s been there all along and will remain an uplifting constant in the ebbs and flows.