Lost and Found

/ Ann Coleman

I thought I lost my wedding ring this morning.  I had just finished walking a dog at the animal shelter where I volunteer when I noticed that the ring wasn’t on my finger.  The dog I’d been walking seemed to pride herself on pulling very hard throughout our walk, so it was very possible that it had somehow slipped off my finger while I was clutching my end of the leash.  I searched for my ring diligently, carefully retracing our steps and even doing a thorough, if rather disgusting, search through two trash cans full of used doggie poop bags.  But I didn’t find it.

My wedding ring is a plain gold band that’s not particularly valuable, and not a family heirloom.  But it has obvious sentimental value to me, and I wasn’t happy about the thought of it being lost forever.  A couple of my fellow volunteers suggested renting a metal detector to look for it, and while I thought that was a good idea, I wanted to go home and search my house and car first.  And lo and behold, we found the ring hiding in my jewelry box.  How it got in there I’ll never know, because it’s the one piece of jewelry I always wear.  I never put it in my jewelry box, as far as I can remember.  But it’s a mystery I can live with because it has a happy ending.

I’ll admit that while I was looking for my ring I didn’t really believe I’d find it.  There were so many places where it could have slipped off my finger that I thought the chances of finding it again were very small, even if I used a metal detector.  I had resigned myself to the fact that the ring I’ve worn for decades was well and truly gone, and thought that I just needed to accept that fact.  But it was found, and now it’s back on my finger, where it belongs.

The truth is, sometimes things that we believe are lost forever can be found again.  And as we are starting to cautiously move out of a time when the pandemic dictated so much of our lives, I’m hoping that some of what we lost during the past several months can also be found again.  I’m hoping that we can find the patience and compassion that has been sorely missing as we deal with people whose reactions to the pandemic were not exactly the same as ours.  I’m hoping that we can find our sense of community again, and remember that we really are “all in this together” and that what affects one of us often affects all of us.

45E59CA4-A803-44A6-B235-04E02D8E44EFThere is no doubt that we have been through some very trying times,  and that some of us have faced devastating losses.  It’s easy to believe that most of the good things we took for granted before the pandemic have been lost forever, but I honestly don’t believe that’s true.  There are still so many reasons to be hopeful….we just have to keep looking until we find them.

77 thoughts on “Lost and Found”

  2. It is so strange when you don’t remember doing something! I can occasionally blame wine, but I have a key missing right now that I always kept in one place, and it’s gone. And it makes no sense. Unless it was the grand kids…. Glad you have your ring!

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  3. Hope is what keeps us going Ann. We may have to work hard to find it sometimes (just like your ring), but it is always there to be found, right close at hand. Thanks for sharing your message. We will get through this and we will return to normal. If we are wise, we will appreciate every day and moment, realizing how easy it is to lose ourselves during a calamity. Cheers. Allan

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    • Exactly, Allan! I see so many people who are tense and angry now, and taking it out on each other, and I really think the reason is they’ve lost hope. But we will get through this…and are so much better off now than we were a year ago. We just need to keep hoping and to keep on being our best selves. Leading by example, you know?

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  5. On Wed, Nov 3, 2021 at 3:57 PM Muddling Through My Middle Age wrote:

    > Ann Coleman posted: “I thought I lost my wedding ring this morning. I had > just finished walking a dog at the animal shelter where I volunteer when I > noticed that the ring wasn’t on my finger. The dog I’d been walking seemed > to pride herself on pulling very hard throughout o” >

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  6. Beautifully said Ann. And I’m so glad you found your wedding ring. I must admit that the first thing I thought of as I read your post was the news that police had finally found little four years old Cleo Smith, more than two weeks after she’d been abducted here in west Australia. I’m not sure if you’d heard of her case but many people (including myself) believed she would never be found again. Was it a miracle or sheer persistence that enabled her to be found. We may never know but I’m forever grateful and I’m sure her parents are too and it’s proof that when we do things together, and hope is never lost, that miracles happen. 🙏

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    • I have not heard of Cleo (the US is horrible about reporting news from other countries), but I’m so glad to hear that she was found! It just goes to show that we should never give up hope, and as you say, great things can happen when people work together rather than fighting each other. I’ll have to google the story to hear the rest of the details! Thank you, Miriam!

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    • It really is. We’ve almost been conditioned to believe, and expect, the worst. But I think that we humans are made of sterner stuff than that, and that we can move beyond this mess into something good if we just try. Good to hear from you, Ally!

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    • I agree! Things will never be exactly the same as they were before the pandemic, but that’s okay. They can still be good, just in a different way. We just have to believe that and work toward it, I think.

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  9. Glad that you found your ring! Usually things do show up in unexpected places. My employer lost a bracelet with little mementos for each of her children. Gone forever it seemed. But one day I was tidying up the backroom in the store and there it was behind a box against the wall. You never know. Too bad you had to go through the doggie bags. 🙂

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    • I’m so glad you were able to find that bracelet for your employer! That must have meant so much to her. And yes, I agree that I wish the ring would have been found before I had to go through the gross trash, but I’m still happy I found it. Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  10. I remember experiences of ‘losing’ something, and then finding it again in some inexplicable place. Occasionally I’ll remember how it got there, and sometimes it remains a mystery. I suspect simple distraction plays a part. In any event, I’m glad you found it — not only to have the ring back, but also to be able to stop thinking about it. My Swedish grandmother swore there were little fairies who would return lost items; perhaps your house has one of those fairies!

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    • I like to think that our house does! Because it is so strange that I have 1) absolutely no memory of putting my ring in my jewelry box, and 2) no reason to take it off my finger and put it in the jewelry box. But life has been very hectic lately, and my mind has been very scattered, so who knows? Ultimately, I’m just glad I found it.

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    • I can relate, Judy! I lost my Covid vaccination card, and had to call the health department where I got my shots to ask for a certificate to verify that I’d been vaccinated. Of course, the day after I asked for the certificate, I found my card!

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    • I like the way you think, Donna! And I really prefer that this was meant to be, to make me think about how I’m reacting to this phase in our life, rather than believe that it’s simply evidence that what little memory I have has finally deserted me….. LOL!

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    • It is hard to believe in the inherent goodness of people sometimes, I agree. But I think a big part of the problem is that the people who are talking loudest and most often are the ones who are the most extreme, on both sides. The moderates are the most reasonable people, but they also tend to be the ones who don’t feel the need to shout their views to the world. When I watch the news, I get depressed. When I actually talk to real people, I almost always feel better!

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  15. That is an amazing account of lost and found. Your desperation and frantic searching have been captured well. The ring has probably etched a deeper ring in your consciousness now and you are going to be more aware of it now on a daily basis.

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    • You area absolutely right! Now that it is back on my finger, I am more aware of it. And also appreciate it even more, since I realized how it would feel to lose it. A lesson learned for sure!

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  16. My heart went out to you reading this one. I lost my wedding rings (soldered together). I looked everywhere but never found them. The insurance company was less than helpful… I found a band that I liked (a one of a kind gold band that had been hand made) and an engagement ring that is from the 1950s that is beautiful. The cost was only a total of $300 at the pawn shop. I never ever take them off! These are 2 rings that I’m not going to lose!

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  18. Oh my Ann… as I was reading this I felt like I was right there with you searching that route close to where you volunteer. I had to laugh to myself as I remembered where I had a nice coffee just down the street and instantly wanted to stop the search and pop in for a cup. 😂🤣 That is what happens when I read blogs before my cup of morning coffee. Anyway, was so happy and relieved that you found it safe at home! Things like this happen time all the time. I created a MIA (missing in action) list. I write the item on the list and some how the universe finally finds it for me. It is my way of stepping back from the frantic feeling of loosing an item, taking a deep breath, and refocus on what is truly important. So happy you had a happy ending to this story. Take care and pop in somewhere for a cup of coffee.😊

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    • Thanks, Paula! I love the idea of an MIA list. Sometimes it really does seem as if the universe gives back to us, and it’s so nice when that happens. I never take my ring off and put it in the jewelry box, so it is so weird that is where I found my ring…..It will forever be a mystery!

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  20. Pingback: Lost and Found – From darkness to light – Out an' About

  24. I am so glad you found your wedding ring Ann! Regardless of how it made its way to your jewellery box, it was meant to be found.

    I have an interesting story around my engagement ring. Years ago, when my daughter was riding, I thought I had lost my ring when helping her groom her horse. In my recollection, I thought I had taken it off & set it on her tack box. We searched that barn high & low as well as all through the long grass outside of the barn. For months, every time we went to the barn, I would look through that damn grass! I was heartbroken that I never found it. Fast forward about 20 years. In the first year of Covid, I was bored & decided to repaint our bedroom & move some things around, including an old chair of my husband’s grandmother. Before I took the chair out of the room, I did a sweep with my hand down each side chair and guess what I pulled out? Yup, my engagement ring! I too, have no idea how it ever got there but there it was. My daughter couldn’t believe it when I texted her a picture of my ring with the caption, “guess what I just found”? She was as dumbfounded as I was!

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  25. Such a beautiful post…You are right about not giving up hope! The times have been so very hard in a great many ways, but as you say, ‘we are all in this together.’ With that understanding and with great compassion for others (and ourselves) we can move forward with confidence. The world changed a lot, but our hearts, not so much. God has been with us through this great storm…He is there also as the sun breaks through the clouds. 🙂 I am so happy that you found your ring!!!

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  26. Good lesson, Ann. I suspect we all need to call up our stores of patience and understanding in these trying times … and perhaps be a bit quicker to forgive and forget. Glad you found your ring. I always pray to St. Anthony when I’ve lost something important to me — and he nearly always returns it. Maybe not immediately, but any time is a good time to receive something you thought you’d lost.

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    • You’re so right about that…did you see Lynn’s comment about finding her ring twenty years after she lost it? And yes, I think now is the time to muster up all the patience and compassion we possibly can. The world needs it, and so do we.

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  28. I’m so happy you found it… but how odd that it turned up in your jewelry box without you remembering putting it there. When my husband swims (3x week in the ocean), he always takes off his ring because it almost slipped off once. I don’t think we’d have much luck fining it at the bottom of the ocean.

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    • Yes, I think if you lose something in the ocean, it is well and truly lost! And I’m still trying to figure out how my ring, which I very rarely take off, ended up in my jewelry box. But it did, and I’m so happy!

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  30. I like the way you used your wedding ring lost and found story to impart your usual wisdom. This time, you remind us to rediscover our sense of community and hope for the future. I’m not positive, but if your ring is gold, you may not have found it with a standard metal detector. I think you might need a special gold detector. I’m glad you found it; and hopefully, you won’t ever have to look for it again.

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    • That’s a good point! My ring is a solid gold, plain band, so now I’m even more grateful that I found it without rending a metal detector…it may not even have worked! And yes, I’m so glad I found it…and I truly hope we do find our sense of community and hope again. We need it, all of us!

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  31. I’m so glad you found your ring. I can imagine how frantic you must have felt. It is true that there has been a good deal lost during this past year plus some, but indeed we should always strive to hope. Thank you for the wonderful reminder, Ann.

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  32. This is a beautiful post, Ann. A good reminder to keep looking for the things we thought have been lost. I’m glad you found your wedding ring. It’s also the only piece of jewelry I never take off, although I did lose it in a bag of raked leaves once – a miracle that I found it. I hope you are doing well, Ann.

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    • I’m so glad you found your ring, Barb! And yes, finding it in a bag of raked leaves is a miracle. I still wish I could figure out how I took mine off (and why) without even remembering it!

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  33. As someone who loses jewelry right and left and never finds it, congrats on finding your ring, Ann. In your jewelry box, no less. And I hope your vision of regaining our sense of community is equally possible. It’s just waiting for us to open our eyes and try. 🙂

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  35. I love your analogy of loss. I feel like I lost a year of my life, but I’m making up for it this year. 😎
    I lost a diamond inset in a band after gardening last spring. Still haven’t found it or replaced it. LOL!
    Followed your blog!

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    • I hope you eventually find it! And yes, I also feel as if I’ve lost at least part of a year, and hoping to make up for it from here on out. Thanks for the comment and the follow!

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  36. Wonder how it got in your jewelry box? You’re such a great writer- I could almost sense what it was like to be looking through the trash for your ring. I am sooooo happy that you found it. Especially with what you and your husband have been through this year. What a blessing that it reappeared. Love the comparison to life lately. Excellent points. By the way, I don’t think I told you that I am the same Jessica with Unmeasured Journeys. I started a new blog for art. So if I act like I’ve been reading your posts for a long time, I have. Ha ha. Hope you have a wonderful day!

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