In an op-ed in yesterday’s NYT, Simon Winchester tells us about a morning ritual he has followed for many years:

Ever since I was 4 years old, I have said “White Rabbits” at the very
moment of waking on every single first day of every single month that
has passed. My mother, tucking me into bed one night, told me to do it,
to bring good fortune; and since I have enjoyed fair good fortune for
all of my subsequent days I have assumed that the acceptance of this
moderate and harmless habit has had something to do with it, and so has
reinforced my need to keep up the practice.

    What struck me about this is: I do it too!  Or, at least I try to.  However, I learned it as "Rabbit, Rabbit;.  If you say that first thing on the first day of the month, you will have good luck for that month.  A friend in high school put me on to it and several of us would remind each other of it every month.   I passed it along to my mother, who would remember it to me on occasion, and my daughter, who, like me, honors it more in the breach than the observance.
 
    It is nice to see it has a deeper historical lineage.  Though I am not, in general, a superstitious person, "Rabbit, Rabbit" is, in a minor sort of way, a reminder of the shifting cosmic fortunes of Way.  Each month will have its own pattern of good and bad, joy and sorrow; each day, each year, each hour will have its own.  Images of white rabbits might not make things better but, when you remember to invoke them, they have a way of creating their own moment, however fleeting, of happiness.