I don’t lose things very often, at least permanently. It usually happens when I am stressed with a million things going on.

When Allyson and James were very young we lived in an apartment in Concord, California. We were fortunate to have a large patio in the back. I could let Allyson and James play out there alone and not worry about them. On Wednesdays we had primary in the late afternoon. One Wednesday i got all of us ready to leave and could not fine my keys anywhere. The key ring was a large key shaped piece of lucite with my name engraved on it, it was not easy to misplace and not see because it was so big. I was getting a little frantic and did not want to be late, I knelt and quick said a pray and while I was praying I saw exactly where my keys were in my mind. I got up walked out to the patio and reached down into the center of a large wooden spool that was there. There were my keys. Allyson had been playing there earlier and must have gotten my keys out of my purse.

 

spool

Later during that same time in Concord I lost my checkbook. It was no where to be found so I closed the bank account and opened a new one. A few weeks later it was found in an old purse that Ally liked to play with.

I kept my patriarchal blessing in a one of my dresser drawers with other important papers. One day I went to get it and after going through all the papers I couldn’t find it. Over the year I went through that drawer several times and still it was gone. (It wasn’t as easy back then to get a new copy). After we moved to Houston I was organizing the dresser and found it in that very same drawer I had looked for it repeatedly. My only explanation is that Heavenly Father knew I needed it right then.

So maybe I really haven’t lost that many things. Allyson certainly helped two of those times. So those are physical things that I have lost, I am sure there are other things not physical that have been lost—friendships, faith, hope, innocence…I need to write about those, too.