I tend to occassionally lose things.
OK, slightly more frequently than occassionally.
One winter when I was a kid, I went through three parkas.
My parents were not thrilled.

Nowadays, I emphasize sunglass loss — that’s my specialty — but I’m not above the classic car key snafu, the coffee mug mysteries and, still, the occasional outgarment slip-up.

This summer I lost my camera case. 
Which is, needless to say, better than losing my camera.
Except that the little battery charger was IN there. So when my batteries ran down, that was the end of vacation snaps.
Sigh.

I used to freak and search and freak and search and chastise myself and freak and beat myself and freak whenever I lost something.
Finally I decided that I must have a little loose wire in my brain, others are tighter, what’s a gal to do.
I give it an honest look for a few days and then I move in.
In some cases, like a nifty little fleece vest I lost a few years ago, moving on means hoping that someone just my size (and a little chilly) found it.
In others, I head back to Target and buy yet another pair of really cheap sunglasses that I won’t weep over when the inevitable occurs.

I’d been about to order a new handy-dandy little battery charger for my camera, in fact, when my mom emailed to say my camera case had been found!
In Wisconsin!
Right where I’d left it!
Hurrah!

I vow, I will love and appreciate the power of that perfect little piece of equipment more than I ever did before.
‘Cause the truth is, I never really appreciated it at all. It’s just a lousy battery charger, after all.
Except that I can’t take a flippin’ picture without it!

So, now I’m thinking about how losing things is about not noticing them. 
I mean, how much attention do we pay to cheap sunglasses or one-of-a-thousand coffee mugs?
Or, for that matter, the occasional idea that nags just slightly from the wings of our minds, on the brink of sleep or in the middle of busyness?
We don’t pause.
We don’t listen.
We don’t write down.
And before you know it, it’s gone.
And it might have been just as perfect as my little battery charger.

I’m thinking of paying closer attention to my things.

So to speak…