My Necklace

Going up my usual route on a colder day I kept my sweatshirt on a little longer than usual. I always take it off after the first set of stairs I run up but that morning it was still a bit crisp so took it off after the second set.

 

When I got home, I realized my necklace was gone. And the worst was that I had aided and abetted in the crime. I had very carefully taken my sweatshirt off, using my hands on the inside to very carefully guide it over my airbuds and my white sunglasses that were on my head. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my necklace was on the outside of my sweatshirt. Shit.

 

I looked down on the trail the next two mornings. I talked to all my morning Mt. Philo peeps asking them to keep an eye out for my necklace. And l posted the story thus far to Front Porch Forum (our town’s communication platform).

 

To my surprise I got this email from someone I didn’t know. She’s a pastor at a local church:

 

 

The stars and compasses and hearts aligned three days later on Saturday morning.

The necklace has two charms - a compass and a heart. And I was sure the compass was going to help it finds its way back to me and the heart was for the heart of the person who wanted to get it back to me.

My college roommate, Felicia (who happens to live across the street – Iucky me) and I ran into a fellow morning hiker that morning in the parking lot of Mt. Philo and as we were starting to head up the trail she said, "Don't forget to look up, someone might hang it on a branch."

So we start up the lower trail. I know where I think I lost it so we're looking up. I'm telling Felicia the story of when I got the necklace. "We were on one of the Greek Islands walking around and there were all these little jewelry shops - so we walk into one……

And then I see it. I see the necklace perfectly placed on a stump covered in beautiful bright green moss. It was like the forest fairies put it there for me to find. And it was as though I had just walked into a new store and found my necklace.

 

Screaming, swearing and tears followed.

 

There it was waiting to be found BY ME!

 

OMG. So many thank yous. Thank you so much to all the people who kept their eye out for my necklace, to the person who found it and put it on the stump, to Tana who I don't know but sent me an email letting me know she too was praying for me to find my necklace, to Adria for telling me to look up and to Felicia for being there to celebrate with me!

And there's more. Three mornings later, as I was coming down Mt. Philo on the road, right there in front of me amongst the colorful leaves covering the road was a red credit card. Now it was my turn to return something lost on Mt. Philo. Paying it backward and forward. I googled the name on the card, found her and messaged her. She replied within 15 minutes, shared her mailing address and her card is now on the way back to her.

 

 

I also wrote a follow up to FPF letting my community know that I had found my necklace and got these emails from people I don’ t even know:

 

 

I love where I live and all the beautiful people who make this place my home.

 

Lastly, I decided I had to try and find the person who put my necklace on that stump. So, I wrote a message in a bottle and left it on the stump yesterday:

 

And today someone added a mask to the stump:

 

 

The story may or may not be over.

 

I hope not.

p.s. I created a hashtag called #mtphilolostandfound so if you happen to find or lose something post a photo with that hashtag. It just might help the missing find their way home.