Earrings, Part II

the lights of Los Angeles

It's been a few years since I last wrote about my tendency to tuck things away in safe places. Very safe places. Places so safe even I can't find them.

As my memory develops small gaps about where I've put things down, I have become more compulsive about making sure I put things somewhere safe when I leave them anywhere but where they belong. (I am now able to lose things without moving from my chair - a whole new level of accomplishment for me!)

I'd brought a couple pair of earrings with me on my trip to California last month. While there, I staked out a spot on the table where I was working to keep them safe when they weren't installed in my ears. Quite proud of myself when it came time to pack for home, I was able to quickly locate all of the jewelry I'd brought with me.

But then, I forgot to put them in the little traveling jewelry case I carry with me. By the time I figured out my mistake, it was buried in the depths of my suitcase. I didn't want to unpack the whole shebang just to put the earrings where they belonged, so I put them somewhere safe. (you see where this is leading, I'm sure...)

I made it home with all my luggage intact, unpacked, and worked myself back into the routine of home. I completely forgot about the stashed earrings until last Thursday, when I decided they were the perfect pair to match my mood-of-the-day. I reached into the box where they are supposed to live, and found an empty space where their cheerful blue lines should have been glinting up at me.

**sigh** Where had they gone? Since they were both missing, it limited the places I would have to search. I began with my workout bag; the first logical choice, but they weren't there. Nor were they in my desk at work, which is the other place I put them when I go down to work out. They weren't forgotten in the little travel case, they weren't next to my bed. **heavy sigh**

Yesterday, I finally had a bit of time, and started unzipping every compartment of every bag I'd touched since my trip. Nope, nope, nope. Tears of frustration started to gather as I checked my large toiletry bag; the last place I knew to look. Nope, they weren't there either. *Argh!* I grabbed a kleenex I'd tucked into the last compartment I'd checked, determined to keep looking until I found where I'd tucked them. They had to be somewhere!!! I unfolded the tissue to wipe my eyes, and there, from the folds, fell my earrings.

I'd wrapped them in the tissue to keep them safe, so the posts wouldn't get bent as the bag went through the mistreatment it was sure to get in the aircraft hold.

Tears forgotten, I put them in my ears, feeling a bit smug. I'd managed to both keep them safe AND find them again.

I'll take my accomplishments where I can find them, thank you very much.

Lost and Found

look closely - Spring!!!

Things that make me go, "hmmmm....."

I have a collection of earrings I select from each day, as my mood dictates. None were expensive enough for my heart to catch if (when) one gets lost, but all have meaning. Each pair holds within its stones and curves the memory of where and when it joined my collection. Some were gifts, some I bought on my camper van trip, all bring brightness to my days.

I try to take good care with them, but inevitably, I lose one or two a year. I lost one earring in late February, just before I left for California. **sigh**

After I came back from my trip, on my first day back to work, I chose the first pair I'd purchased on my camper van trip. I needed to remember those happy travel days that morning. When I reached to take them out at the end of the day, I found just an empty space where my right earring should have been.

"Dang it! That's two earrings in two weeks! Libby, are you still around?" My Libby tears are still close to my eyes, they leak out at odd times without warning. "Libby, if you're still here, help me to find my earrings!"

I didn't expect a response; I know better. Such arbitrary tests tied to physical objects don't garner results - it's just not the way the spirit world works.

I didn't expect a response, but I got one.

A few days later, I was tidying up my closet and picked up the small dish that I use to hold my earrings at the end of the day. There, tucked beneath the edge, was the first earring I'd lost. I stared in stunned silence. It wouldn't have been so surprising, except I'd have sworn I lost the earring during the day at the office. And, before I left on my trip, I compulsively tidied up the space while making sure I hadn't forgotten anything important. How could I have missed it, even tucked away as it was???

A few of those ever-ready tears escaped their holding place. "Libby, are you near? Are you telling me all is well? Can Love reach across the divide????"

I carefully put the earring away with its mate, not sure what to think.

Two days later, I was putting away the collection of shoes that congregates on the floor of my closet each week. I'd put away my walking shoes, my slippers, the first of the three pair of dress shoes I'd worn that week. I picked up the next shoe to continue my task, and there, on the rug, was the other missing earring, it's green stone glowing up at me as if to say, 'about time you got here'.

??????

This time, more than a few of those tears gushed forth. I'm sure there's a perfectly good logical explanation for how the earrings got to where I found them.

My heart doesn't care. Logic, schmogic.

I asked, I received an answer.
Hmmmmm.....

Signs of Spring

I cheated.  I skipped the last week in February in Kansas City, and flew to Los Angeles to visit my daughter.

There, I had a few days of sunny skies and highs in the lower 60's before the rain managed to catch up with me and turn the skies gray. I didn't mind. Between bouts of rain, I was still able to sit in the backyard swing and look at the green plants. And, the weather didn't touch my enjoyment of the company of my daughter and granddaughter.  (I'd have stayed longer, but work would only let me work remotely for so long. Not complaining, mind you. I'll take a week over nothing...)

After flying home, I walked out of the airport to find the temperature was 2. Two. So much for escaping the last of winter - I guess it wanted to stick around long enough to say goodbye to me in person.

Because that night was the last of it. All last week, the temperatures inched higher. I look around, and see signs of spring everywhere.

There is no more snow or ice in the forecast. The lows are flirting with the freezing mark, and for a few brief moments this morning, the temps outside were actually balmy; sixtyish.  After about an hour of tantalizing warmth, the wind picked up and quickly dropped the temp almost 20 degrees - but that's just March being March.

The days are longer - the sun is up before I get to work, and sticks around for a while after I get home.

The birds are up and at 'em early these days.  I hear them greeting the morning in the pre-dawn darkness after my alarm goes off at 5:30.

I haven't seen a robin yet, but I know people here in town who have - that counts, yes?

One day soon, I know I'll be driving, contemplating the winter-bare branches, and I will see that first hint of green cloud surrounding the gray.  I'll shake my head and look again more closely, making sure I didn't imagine it.  The green will still be there, and it'll be there the next day and the next, and before I know it, the trees will be wearing their spring wraps of flowers.

It only seems like this winter will last forever.
Spring will come.
This, too, shall pass.