Lost and Found

I don't know what you believe...but I believe that things in this Universe link up. Some times the world seems to listen and respond.

It's not Divine, necessarily. It's not exactly predestination. But I do sometimes find that things align and unfold and regroup, often coming together beautifully.

When Steinvic and I married, I had a special bracelet made for him. It was my design, hand-crafted by a woman who made a necklace for him long ago, on my design, for his birthday that we spent together.

It was magnificent. Odd and sentimental and one-of-a-kind.

And right after we returned from our January, belated honeymoon (we married in October), it disappeared.

We searched high and low. We retraced our steps, emptied closets, searched furniture. I actually picked a fight...I was so upset and Steinvic seemed apathetic, which was in reality, fear and disbelief that it was gone and maybe a little hope that he'd find it before I discovered it missing.

We even contacted the airline, since airport security was the last place we could firmly remember him having it. We thought he'd skipped putting it on, (because it was a little awkward to put on and take off), and tucked it into his pocket, planning to put it on when we got settled on the plane. I remembered putting our jackets into the overhead and hearing a clank...at the time, I attributed that to our jacket zippers.

We received a truly kind, personal email from our airline...no bracelet was found.

And so, in these weeks, we resigned ourselves to the fact that the bracelet was gone forever. It made us sad.

And we talked about a new design...one that was similar, but not exactly the same, because I didn't like the idea of another, identical to the original, existing without being attached to us...just on the chance that it had been found by a stranger.

Tonight, I ran errands after work. Steinvic is working in Cbus and will be home tomorrow. I found clearance shirts at Macy's and did my MAC recycling so I could get a free lipstick. I went to WalMart to see the puppy beds we'd shopped online in person. I came home, exercised, did some laundry and sewed a little.

I misplaced the needle-threader my Mom got me and was pulling seat cushions off the couch, thinking it fell between them.

I went downstairs to get the vaccuum and got ready to sweep the whole room...I started to get the feeling that I'd accidentally thrown the threader away. But just in case, I wanted to vaccuum...it's a thin wire and I didn't want our new puppy to find it.

I pulled the cushion off the loveseat one last time, looking for the threader and then pulled off the other cushion...

And there was the bracelet! Found! Home. Here with us, even though we both were sure we'd looked there previously.

I cried. I kissed the bracelet. I texted a photo of it to Steinvic. I called my Mom to tell her. Steinvic called me right away and was so happy.

It's not the monetary value...it's totally the sentiment.

I don't put a lot of stock into things. As I've said before, I lost everything I owned in a horrible hurricane (that was my past life) and so, as a result, I don't care so much care about material things.

But a few, select, sentimental things...things that I meant for precious people to have...

I'm so grateful. I had written something special for Steinvic on our dry-erase board earlier tonight and I like to think that had something to do with this remarkable find...

No matter the cause, I am thankful.

Everything is as it should be. And I am lucky for a thousand reasons...