Finder’s Keepers

I loose things all the time.  Sometimes little stuff like pens and my phone for a month, but medium things too.  I remember a three-quarter sleeve red sweatshirt that I adored and left at the mall.  This summer I accidentally left my hat on the bus which lead to a bit of a moment while waiting for the next train.  While I generally don’t loose big or expensive things, I tend to loose things that I like a lot.  That I’m at least a little bit upset over never seeing again.

At least as often I find awesome things.  On the street.  On the El.  Tucked into corners of coffee shops forgotten.  Last year on my way home from church I found a kitchen mixing bowl.  The next week one of mine broke and I still have that red bowl.  I made muffins with it last week.  This past week I found a Camelback water bottle in a Blue Line station.  Washed it off and it’s good as new.  And free too.

I almost hesitate to tell the internet this because a lot of times when I tell people about something I found they look at me like I’m insane and tell me something along the lines of “that’s disgusting”.  Give me a little bit of credit.  I always wash things before I use them for myself.  Besides, if no one else is going to use it and it just would be thrown away I’m giving it new life, am I not?  It’s like thrifting without the store.

There is a certain element where I see how the thing I’ve lost have been brought back to me in the form of other things.  I think this is true in the more metaphorical sense too.  When I work hard on something and it falls apart I choose to see it as something that someone else needed more.  Something else will be coming my way that will be a better fit for me.  I don’t always know what it is yet, but I’ll know it when I see it.