As I got ready for bed on Friday night I went to take out my earrings and I was surprised to find only one in my ear. At first I looked on the floor, then in the dress I had just taken off, then I went downstairs to look at my coat and scarf and hat. I kept hoping it would drop out when I shook all of these pieces of clothing, but alas.
We had been at shul that night for a service and dinner and I started to hope that maybe it fell out there. It isn't a particularly small earring, I figured, so maybe someone will have seen it and turned it into our Superintendent for the lost and found. I would be back at synagogue the next day and would just have to ask. I could almost picture the moment when he returned the earring to me, but I knew it wasn't a given. On the walk to synagogue on Saturday morning I scanned the ground, looking for the glint of gold or diamonds. Nothing.
I never like losing things (does anyone?!?!), but as I struck out at more and more places, this potential loss was becoming particularly sad for me. These earrings had belonged to my mother and was something she'd wear when she got dressed up, so I have some lovely memories of it. Plus, it is a very versatile earring! Truth be told, I was starting to near "yeiush." Yeiush is a talmudic term related to lost objects and was part of one of the first tracts of talmud I ever studied. When someone has a lost object and has completely despaired of finding it again, it becomes public property and if someone else finds it, they are allowed to keep it. So, I was nearing the point of thinking "I'll never find this. I have to just adjust to the idea that it's gone." But one part of my emotions was holding me back from feeling this completely. That little part was holding out hope. Sunday evening while putting my youngest to bed, I looked over and saw the earring on his nightstand! He didn't even know what it was, but he had found it in the yard when he took out the dogs and it caught his attention with the glint of gold and diamonds!
Sometimes, hope is fulfilled and when that happens, it feels so good.
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