old country house blog

FINDING WHAT IS LOST

Have you ever lost your keys? 
Of course you have. And if you are like me, you lose them more than you care to say. 
Yes, I have a “hook” where they are supposed to go. And I try to remember to “put them back in the same place every time!” just like my helpful husband says AND just like instruct my children to do, when they lose the three hundred things a day they lose, but things…still get lost.
Recently, though, I had an epiphany about finding lost things, and actually about finding anything, even a job, or a friend or perhaps a husband. The minute that you STOP looking, the minute you stop directing your energy towards “I have GOT to find my purse, or my wallet or my mind”,
WELL,  Lo and behold and I am telling you this is a tried and true fact, things just appear.
 I have lost count of the number of times I have given up, just gone to get my coat, felt thirsty, remembered I had a diet coke on the floor by my chair, went to get the diet coke, and seen my keys right under the chair. NOW it is almost like a game. I will lose something. Then just say “oh well.” Go on about my business which is 99% percent of the time the business of getting myself and everyone else out the door and on our way, usually heading towards tardiness. I will just plow forward and follow my instincts . Pick up this and that, listen to myself and walk into a room to see turn off the lamp, or open the drawer to put away the socks and EVERY time, the thing I am looking for is there, along that path. It really could freak me out if I did not enjoy the process so much. It just works. 

     See,  I think that we are ALL incredibly smart and THAT the minute we start learning “stuff” we begin to dismantle our geniusLY wired brains. All the information and organization, which does have its place, all of it though can clog the pathways of TRUE knowledge and true understanding. 
We all know when someone is mad at us, long before we ask, “Are you mad?” . But often we do not like the answers, so we set about to change them, by pushing and shoving our lives in directions or behaviors that mostly if anything are a waste of time. WE don not like to feel bad. We live not to feel bad, so if the answer we get from ourselves is a bad feeling one, theN off we go, running around looking busy, while the inevitable happens.

   so….back to keys..  try this,. the next time you lose something. 
just stop
do not retrace your steps or rack your brain trying to figure out what you did with this or that or where you were last. 
NO. Just go on about your business. And if your brain says, ‘Have you tried on that pink sweater lately?”or ” I feel like a cookie,” or “I need to call so and so…” just listen and follow the seemingly ridiculous path which seems way off course and I promise, 
you will find the thing you are looking for. 
But you have to be ready to listen. 
Try it!!

3 thoughts on “FINDING WHAT IS LOST

  1. My thing that I do is I whistle for it. Seriously, it.works.every time. I would think it’s based on the same theory of your post. I mean I whistle, I like whistling, I then whistle a little tune, possibly start humming, sometimes turns into a complete performance complete with an improvised microphone. 🙂 Yep- I whistle for it… 🙂

  2. lol. To piggy-back on these cute strategies, the “mystery” surrounding “finding lost things” will always be unique to everyone. While some of us SEEM to share similar strategies sometimes, none will ever be the same. And as soon as we think we have a strategy nailed, it will no longer work! It is less related to “meaningless stuff” collecting in our heads and more related to the inherent uniqueness of every single thing in the universe.

    Think of the “seek-and-find” strategy like playing peek-a-boo with an infant. Only in this case WE are the infants! Then the REAL question becomes, WHO is playing peek-a-boo with US? You are right that SOMEthing about us is more brilliant than we know (infinitely omniscient in fact) yet that SOMEthing hides infinitely brilliant as well. Hiding in plain sight (like our keys) yet ALWAYS hidden .. just seemingly taking us on unique meandering journeys.

    As it is, my journey has meandered into no longer needing strategies to find missing things. I am mid-40’s and have had severe brain trauma even, yet now if I need to find something, like keys, the location is instantly offered. Sort of like when writing and searching for the perfect word, then all of a sudden a word pops in your head that you have never heard or used before so you google it, and lo-and-behold it is the perfect word!

    If things change and I need strategies again, I would be happy eating cookies while searching 🙂

    Michele

  3. I couldn’t agree with you more!! But my take on it, is that once you let the tension out of your body.. the stress and anxious feelings that have taken hold out of your mind…. I feel someone else steps in and guides you. Just my feelings. Sometimes I feel we all want to control every little detail of our lives and it’s not always up to us. Just take a deep breath and let it go!

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