Walking back to my house this evening, I noticed an unusual number of lost items strewn about the pavement. Quite possibly nothing that anyone would much miss, with the odd exception, but probably none that were discarded intentionally. I don’t know whether I was in some sort of heightened state of awareness of lost belongings today, or whether there were more of these things around than usual. Probably I was just looking at the floor a lot. I don’t think they all fell out of the same person’s bag, unless that person had a really eclectic mix of possessions. And quite a big bag.

The items were as follows:

• One Birkenstock sandal, brown, worn but in good condition. Size 7 (estimated)
• A Twix, two fingers, unopened
• One pair of black sports socks, neatly bundled
• One sign, reading ‘toilet closed for cleaning’, presumed lost as it was propped up against a fence, in direct proximity to no toilet that I could see
• Two postcards of the ‘dog in sunglasses’ variety
• A cushion cover. I think

We lose things all the time, don’t we. Sometimes we’re left distraught, searching endlessly or trying to replace whatever we’ve lost. Other times we aren’t even aware of what we’ve lost. And a lot of the time we just accept that whatever it is is gone, and carry on. But we find things all the time, too. Quite often, when we’re not really looking for them. And probably, sometimes, because of a thing we’ve lost. I once found a necklace I’d completely given up on, for example, whilst searching for the missing one of a pair of earrings. Clearly the situation would have been further improved had I not then thrown away the remaining earring, only to find its pair shortly after I’d put the bins out. But still. Another time, I lost the idea of ‘me’ that I’d been holding on to all my life up until that point – you know, the one that hadn’t had cancer, hadn’t been through all sorts of treatment and its long-term effects, wasn’t in a constant state of low-level anxiety, was completely convinced she was invincible, that sort of thing. But I found an absolutely amazing network of people. I found a lot more focus, and passion, for the things I really care about. I found a much better sense of balance, and an inner strength I’d had no idea I possessed. I also found every single high quality purveyor of coffee and baked goods in the known world.

So I guess I lost an idea, and found something real. I just hope whoever lost those socks found something equally fantastic to take their place.