Lost --- Devastated --- Found --- Grateful

This is what happened 2 nights ago. I was packing to travel, and I started searching for a critique I needed. I thought I’d finally have time for it. It was almost midnight, but I searched for an hour before I gave up. I knew I should have quit sooner.

​​I tried to sleep but my thoughts ran circles through my head  - it’s lost – where could it be – my fault – my husband’s – it’s lost – If I could edit this photo, that search arrow would be spinning like those thoughts.

​This is what a critique looks like. It shows what a reviewer thinks can be done to improve a story.

I was searching for one from the Cleveland writing conference for a manuscript that’s moving closer to publication. I have someone who’s interested in the story, with changes of course.

I felt like my critique was irreplaceable. I wanted to sob, but I was too tired.
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I tried talking to myself. I backtracked through all the places I’d been, the things I’d done with that critique. I came up with 2 new places to check and a backup plan, just in case it was truly gone.

The last time I remember seeing the critique was in Texas. I went to  my grandgirl’s shower. I checked with my daughter-in-law. It wasn’t there.
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   After Texas we stopped at the lake, and I unloaded a bag. I checked it. No critique so I gave up, at least for a TV break. I turned it on . . .

​AND I FOUND IT – beside the remote control, right where I’d left it, Forgotten. Minds and memories work like that. It’s sad but true.

But finding it, that was a Hallmark movie moment! Perfect like this photo! I had my critique. I could work on my manuscript, and life was good! I wish Hallmark moments lasted longer, but I savor them as long as possible!

My husband told me I’d find my critique, and he was right. He loves hearing that!

Tomorrow I have another story that’s lost – devastated – found – grateful! My husband was right again!

This is an aquamarine. It’s the March birthstone. I have an aquamarine ring, not this big of course. Mine is much, much smaller, but it’s precious to me.

​I lost a baby when I was  pregnant. I’d only known about it for a couple weeks, but it was devastating.

It took a year to recover, and by that time I was pregnant again with my daughter. She was due the same time as the baby I lost. Both babies were due in March. 26 years later, it feels like a Godwink moment from a Hallmark movie.

About a month ago, I lost the ring. I looked everywhere, in all the usual spots. I was sad, but not devastated because my husband said, once again, you’ll find it.

​And once again he was right. I found the ring a couple days later when I stopped looking. It was laying downstairs close to the laundry room. This is how I felt, like I was starring in a  summer Hallmark movie!

I’d laid it there when I was doing laundry. I wanted to put it in a safe place. I did! An unusually safe place. So safe even I couldn’t find it.

My advice – when something is lost – search carefully by backtracking through all the places you remember being. Search again, like once a day. Also search your memory, maybe you’ll remember a place you’d forgotten. You’ll look, and there it will be.

Another tip – pray. I do. I pray that it will be found, and if it isn’t,that it will find its way to someone who needs it, like the ring. But if it’s like the manuscript, I pray for another way to recover it. I did have another plan, to email the conference for another copy of the critique.
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Finally I try to learn from my mistakes. With my critique,  I’d make another copy, put it in a special folder so it would be easier to find. Good luck to you and to me, because eventually we all lose things, and hopefully we won’t lose ‘it’ either. We’ll keep our cool and make the best of a disappointing/devastating situation!