.....lost

Yogis,

I’m at the beach and this morning I ran Phoebe down to the ocean.  On the way I always go straight down one of the main streets, but on the way back I meander through various streets and paths, rarely taking the exact same route.  One option is to cut through some woods and I decided I would do that today.  I was about to turn in at one entrance but at the last minute changed my mind and went to the next.  We entered  and made a turn or two when suddenly right smack in the middle of the path we were following I see the pouch that I use to carry dog treats lying there.  Perfectly intact, treats inside.  What the heck?  I had no idea I had even lost it!  It must have fallen off on one of my walks yesterday.  Thank you Universe!

When my boys were young there were times they would come storming into the room declaring that something was ‘gone’.  They knew without doubt that they hung their jacket up the night before but it was now gone!  They had a $20 bill in their dresser and it is suddenly gone!  Homework, socks, backpacks all at one time or another had suddenly vanished.

I would calmly reply that things don’t disappear and that the odds of someone having ‘taken’ them were minuscule. That these items were somewhere. They were not lost. My hope was to install a life lesson about the loss of belongings. 

When we go to look for something and find it not there, our mind and body both react. The heart begins to race, our breath quickens and the muscles tense. We begin a frantic search checking corners and crevices where we know darn well it couldn’t be. We look in the same drawer at least five times thinking perhaps it will appear.  It was stolen.  I left it at work. We retrace our steps in the mind over and over. Becoming angry with ourselves. Suffering because we had become attached. 

But nothing is lost. It just isn’t where you thought it was. It has separated from you. Perhaps for the time being…..or perhaps forever. You and it are energy that have been drawn apart. 

Things are not ‘ours’. Everything comes and everything goes eventually. Sometimes that happens by ‘losing’ them.  And many times they will come back, even months later.

When I lose something…..an earring, a book, my favorite water bottle…..I know that if it is meant to be with me, it will return.  I visualize it and send energy toward it as my conscious way of ‘looking for it’, and then I wait.  Often it finds its way back.  Ah, there you are…..The earring I find stuck in a sweater the next time I am pulling it over my head.  The key in the pocket of the jeans I haven’t worn for a week.  The missing puzzle piece that appears on the floor when I sweep. But sometimes they don’t, and that’s ok. They’re needed somewhere else.   

At times I find myself on the receiving end as well. Like the perfect feather earring I almost stepped on while walking the canal. As I wear it I imagine the other who let it go. And other times something returns before I even know it was gone….

The energy of the Universe is in constant motion. Ride the wave and trust in its perfection. 

Lost

Stand still. 

The trees ahead and the bushes beside you are not lost. 

Wherever you are is called Here,

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,

Must ask permission to know it and be known.

The forest breathes. Listen. It answers.

I have made this place around you.

If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.

No two branches are the same to Wren.

If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,

You are surely lost. Stand still. 

The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you.

~ David Wagoner, Traveling Light

I am here,
SARAH