After spending several days being caught up in hurricane preparations for a storm that fortunately never made it to Orlando, normal life resumed on Thursday. Eleni went back to school, Mark went on a local business trip, our kitchen backsplash was finally getting installed and I had plans to make it the mail box which is about 500 meters from our home. I figured it was time to finally empty it form all the junk that accumulates in there.
So, after I picked up Eleni from school at 5:30 pm and stopping at Chipotle for a burrito, we headed home and stopped at the mail box. I got out of the car, opened the back passenger door to retrieve the mailbox key from my bag. As always, my bag was full of old receipts, an umbrella, rain jacket, pens, antihistamines, sanitary pads... but my keys were nowhere to be found. I started getting everything out when I heard a click - a noise of something falling on the ground. I turned around but did not see anything. I thought it must have been a useless penny being thrown in the air with the rest of my junk while I was making my frantic search. The keys were nowhere to be found. I packed everything back in to the bag and drove home.
I quickly changed into my athletic walking attire, grabbed a small shopping bag and walked back to the mail box, this time with the key. I retrieved all the mail, placed it in the bag and happily walked back home. Once there, I left the mail bag in the garage and continued my stroll down the end of our street and around the loop.
Luca called during my walk. As always, we had a wonderful conversation, and I took him around the loop at the end of the road. The sunset was simply gorgeous to the point that I decided to walk on a few yards of the golf course, climb on a little hill and take photos there. To my surprise, I discovered a little pond behind the hill which I had never seen before - because I had never walked on the golf course- and I was so happy to stand on a hill (tiny), to catch a breeze on a super hot summer evening, and admire the gorgeous sunset behind the pond. As life in Orlando is pretty dull, you can imagine my enthusiasm. Luca can attest. We were still on the phone and I was texting him photos of the scenery.
Then I continued my walk home. By the time I arrived it was dark. I watered the plants by the garage and went inside. I deserved a nice cool shower. As I was ready to come out of the shower, I realized that I was missing an earring. Oh NO!!! it was by far my absolute favorite earring. I started my second frantic search of the day. First place to look: in the shower itself. Sometimes I lose earrings while I shampoo my head. But nothing. I went to the dirty laundry hamper, shook all the dirty clothes off but nothing. I tried to retrace the steps of the day in my head, until I remembered the "click" sound at the mail box when I had gone there the first time.
I quickly got dressed again, knelt down in my closet to pray, and went back to the mail box, with my phone flash light on along the way to see if by chance I could spot the earring on the sidewalk. When I got to the mail box I looked everywhere, but was not able to find anything. So, I returned home. I told Eleni that my search had been in vain and proceeded to take a photo of the other earring to post it on Next Door for the KP's neighborhood, hoping someone might have found the lost earring and would read my post. In the meanwhile Mark arrived home from his business trip. I gave him the news of my sudden loss and he kindly accompanied me all the way to the end of the street, around the loop and on the golf course hill. It was dark and all we could see were each other's phone lights. We looked like professional robbers!
I so much desired to see the earring sparkle on the ground. But we never found it. We returned home. I was dehydrated, mad, and experiencing a tremendous sense of loss. I was really mad at God for depriving me of yet one more thing, besides my boys, my life, my city (aka Boston, and old Salerno), and now even my favorite earring. What in the world... I was wondering if Job had felt the same. I really wanted to cry. I think I did end up crying when I went to bed while praying to understand why this was happening to me. Me and losses... the love of a lifetime!
The next morning the plan was to go to the gym and then retrace my steps in the neighborhood one more time. I stopped at the mail box on the way to the gym. Nothing. After the gym, the stupid tile guy was back to do the grout. "I will never find that earring now" I figured "if I have to wait for this guy to finish..." As soon as he left, I dashed out the door and started my brisk walk back to the mail box, this time in the middle of the road, thinking that maybe the poor earring had travelled on the little step to get in and out of the car for a while, before dropping on the road and maybe being squished into pieces by a garbage truck.
I was talking to Luca again and he was cheering for me. Then I met my neighbor Lisa, who accompanied me on my walk all the way on the end of the street, all the while saying, "Don't worry, I'll look for your earring on my walks. I have got you covered." Yeah right!
The grass on the golf course had just been cut so I imagined my earring all chewed up in some rusty, gargantuan lawnmower somewhere (golf course size)...Needless to say, once again I did not find anything. I went back home ready to pursue the rest of the plan: take a shower and drive back to Chipotle to check the parking lot there. I was not going to give up so easily. However, after the shower, I distinctly heard a voice in my head saying, "Don't go. Do what you need to do here: work on translation of the book by C. C. That is more important. It will all work out." I have learned to obey that voice!
Without questioning it I sat down to translate. I had one hour before having to pick up Eleni at school. By the afternoon I had basically forgotten about the earring, thinking that iwas gone forever! Sigh! We continued with our afternoon activities and Mark and I left at 6:00 to go to the Brad Wilcox Fireside, on the topic of grace.
The main point of the fireside was that we walk this life with Christ, we do our part and he blesses us with grace along the way, enabling us to carry out our life, changing us along the way, and blessing us with power, knowledge and blessings. But we have to do our part. He (Br Wilcox) created this equation: Christ + me = more. Although we tend to think: me +more = Christ.
We came home and watched tv. As I was sitting on the couch I checked my email as I usually do before going to bed. There was a next-door message: a lady named Sonya claimed to have my earring. She said her husband had found it while golfing. What??
I called her this morning only to realize that her number was already stored in my phone. What??
Then I remembered it was the owl lady we had met last year with her husband and daughter when we first moved in. We had gone on a bike ride and they stopped us to look at an owl in a tree. We had exchanged phone numbers but never talked again.
Mark and I walked to her house and sure enough her husband had the earring the he had found at the mailbox, not golfing.
I immediately felt that the story was a perfect illustration of what Br Wilcox shared with us at the fireside. I had done all that I could have possibly done to find the earring: walked miles back and forth, prayed to find it, prayed for understanding, listened to the voice that told me to keep working on my translation, while reassuring me at the same time that it would all work out fine. Then, miraculously, the blessing came. It was an amazing feeling.
Now, I have to figure out if there is a reason why that particular family found the earring... maybe there will be another chapter to the story!
