I’ve seen it all before. And the story ends the same every time. But today the moral of that story took me by surprise.
My mom misplaced her glasses this morning. She looked everywhere as I followed her through the house. They weren’t on the nightstand or under the bed (I helped her look). They weren’t in either of the bathrooms. They weren’t in the freezer (stranger things have happened). So she stopped looking. She went about her other business and that’s when it happened. The lost glasses were found on the dresser in the bedroom right where she left them the night before. Right where the belonged.
And it struck me. She had to stop looking to find what was lost. It got me to thinking about this misconception I think people have about us canines being able to find anything we’ve left someplace. Sure, there are some breeds that are especially gifted at tracking just about anything. But there are others who leave a graveyard of buried bones in the backyard of a home when moving to another. I’m not proud to say I probably fall into the second category myself.
Especially when I think back to one night in particular at the Oshkosh Humane Society. It was the night after Rusty left me to go to doggie heaven. He took his contagious optimism with him, leaving me behind with nothing but my thoughts. So I resolved to change some things that night. I resolved to stop trying so hard to be adopted. I was probably not helping matters by trying to jump into the arms of all of my visitors anyway. So I stopped looking.
I know it sounds terrible coming from your resident doggie optimist but sometimes I think that’s what it takes to find what we’re really looking for. “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves,” as one of my favorite transcendentalist thinkers Henry David Thoreau put it.
I’ve seen it all before and it always seems to end the same way. It’s quite the paradox really. From little things like mom’s glasses to life-changing things like when my forever people found me, sometimes what we seek is more easily found when we stop looking for it. And so the lost is found.
Wiley's Wisdom 
Reblogged this on Totally Inspired Mind-Where Positive Minds Congregate.
As a daughter of two parents who both had dementia, and my mom with Alzheimer’s disease, I can relate to this. My heart goes out to you as a caregiver. Make sure you do something good for yourself each day.
I created a newsletter you might be interested in about dementia, Alzheimer’s disease & medical breakthroughs and preventing the disorders/diseases.
I can send you the link to Ramona’s Alzheimer’s Disease Daily if you like, or you can read one on
http://www.TotallyInspiredPC.wordpress.com
God bless you!
Paulette Motzko
Paulette,
Thank you, not only for visiting and commenting, but for reblogging my post. I love new paw prints on my pages, and your presence here made my day! My mom knows a good deal about dementia and Alzheimer’s, because of her studies in psychology. My heart goes out to you and your cause. I will be sure to check out your newsletter on WP.
Thank you again for your kind words and thoughtfulness!
-Wiley
Hello Wiley,
I am so happy we met on WordPress and am glad I made your day.
You are one of the reasons I am happy I chose WordPress.com to house my blogs.
Have a good night.
Paulette Le Pore Motzko
Dear Paulette,
WordPress is indeed a fabulous family of bloggers with great ideas and big hearts. I’m glad that my blogging family has grown a little bit more today! 🙂
Lots of love,
Wiley
Thank you Wiley for being a kindred spirit and for cheering that I get the best quality of life for my mom Ramona Lea.
Lots of love to your dear mom too!!!
Thanks so much for your supportive words about mom & I. I have “met” some of the most extraordinary people on this site. After sharing ideas, finding common bonds etc., I feel as though in many cases I have met the people I come in contact with here.
I know some I will meet one day.
Have an awesome Sunday!
Paulette Motzko
Hi Paulette,
I did indeed enjoy an awesome Sunday, and hope you did the same. All my best to you and your people.
Lot of love,
Wiley
Hello Wiley,
That’s nice…I am glad you did enjoy a nice relaxing Sunday.
Here at Tiffy’s Restaurant in Anaheim creating a questionnaire that I will use with clients when I talk to the owners of restaurants & food businesses.
I love how you wrote this and the lesson. Thank you!
I’m so happy to see new paw prints on my page today! Thank you – so much – for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with me. Please come visit me again soon!!!
it’s great how you pulled such a simple lesson out of an everyday event. I love it when you have these realisations 🙂
Well hello new friend!
Thank you so very much for stopping by! I adore new paw prints on my pages. Thank you for your kind words as well.
Please keep coming to visit me!
Lots of love,
Wiley
Will do :).
Wyles, how many times did your Mom look on the dresser? Five? Six? I’m going to whisper this, my own discovery/theory: I think the Universe borrows things from us and then, suddenly, they are returned. It has happened many times in my house.
That’s the thing, dear friend – I can’t see up there otherwise I would have told her that’s where they were hiding. Sometimes I wish to be taller. 🙂 But you’re right – mom did absentmindedly look at the dresser at least half a dozen times. Sometimes we do not see what’s right in front of our nose. 🙂
Lots of love to all the Huntmode family,
Wiles
Right back atcha, Schmidt family!
I can see some similarities to myself here too, I now have a pair of reading glasses in every room…. hehe
It does happen with other things too though!
Hi friend!
I’ve missed your smiling face around here lately! 🙂
Thanks for dropping by.
Lots of love,
Wiles
Good point, W. Searching too hard takes you out of the moment, I guess. In the moment is the place to be!! When I first came here, I took Mom’s glasses off the piano and put them under my belly on the couch to hatch them like an egg.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Dear Cupcake,
You always have this way of taking my thoughts and making them even more interesting. That is a gift, dear friend! Oh, and your sense of humor makes me giggle every time – I love your idea to try to hatch your mom’s glasses! I’m sure she loved that! 🙂
Lots of love to you and Mom,
Wiles
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Thanks for the pingback!!!
You are so clever and seem to daily be posting a post (urgh!) which speaks directly to me and what I am going through at the moment! Thanks
Dear friend,
I do indeed blog every day. It was the commitment I made to myself 322 days ago on a freezing cold snowy day-to blog every day for 365 days. Watching the snow fall from the sky that day gave me the idea for the blog – as snow fell, I observed my unique perspective on joy. From the ground up, as opposed to the snow coming down from the sky. It was joy for me that day. 🙂 It hasn’t been easy, but kind words from fabulous folks like yourself have gotten me through. Thank you.
Lots of love,
Wiles
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Reblogged this on Wiley's Wisdom and commented:
Sometimes you have to stop looking to find what’s lost.