Moments D144: Lost & Found

Today was my first golf tournament ever. It’s the second time I’ve ever played 18 holes. It’s also been 10+ years since the last time I played golf, and yet, I found myself enjoying it and I actually performed much better than I expected. (Perhaps all those high school dates at the mini putt paid off?)

It was a beautiful day with the sun and clouds fighting it out. It was cool but warm with the sun. It was perfect and my foursome was a lot of fun to play with. We managed 4 under par. As a crew: not bad at all if I do say so myself.

Today’s moment comes from both my golf day and a moment at home. It ties back to my life, so bear with me on today’s moment being a bit long.

My first moment, and the moment I intended to share on its own, was when I sliced my drive pretty badly. It went into the edge of rough of weeds and marsh. My partner suggested that I just let it go, but I was certain (stubborn?) I could find my ball. So I went on an adventure in the rough looking for my ball. The first ball I came upon I nearly squealed in delight. Sadly, it wasn’t my ball, but one from someone else who had given up on it. I searched and searched. I kicked weeds aside and managed to get my pants covered in fluff from the weeds. And just as I was about to give up on my ball, there it was, gleaming brightly in a dark patch of wet weeds. BINGO! I had found it after all!

And then later on this evening, while emptying my bags and cleaning up my hurricaned bedroom, I found my lost favourite earring. I was elated! I know, it’s just an earring, but it’s my favourite pair!

And this juxtaposition of items lost and found struck me. First of all,the golf ball was something I knew I might lose and I was ready to accept that fate if I were unable to find the ball. Contrarily, my earrings, being so dear to me, are not items that I would readily accept losing them (and yet I had already written them off).

One could further contrast how the items were found. For instance, while I took time and energy to look for my lost earring originally, I gave up the search and believed it lost for good. In the end, my earring essentially found me. On the other hand, the golf ball I searched and searched until I found it.

Strangely I related today’s experience back to my life as of late. Just shy of a year ago my world changed drastically. During this time frame, I realized just how lost I was as a soul and as a person. I was not happy. I was barely content. As the dawn of realization hit me, my search to find myself began.

There have been times in the past (near) year where I have searched and searched and searched to find and replace a lost piece of me (like the golf ball). There have been other times where a piece of me has found me again (like my earring). (And yes, there are many pieces that I continue to search for in the hopes of finding a deeper truer me.) Will I find those pieces or will they find me? I suppose it doesn’t really matter so long as the pieces are found and not lost.

The point is that even when you lost something, there’s always the hope of finding it again. The joy that spreads when the lost becomes found is worth the effort of searching and sometimes we must let go and have faith that the important pieces, the most important pieces, will find us in the end.

Moments of loss.

Moments of found.

Moments of life.