Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler !!!

Ever have one of those moments ... when the world sort of stops ... and you think, how in the heck could that have happened ?!?  And the sinking feeling that follows ... because you know there's no way that it can possibly be undone ... it just is what it is ?!?

That was me ... last nite ... after coming home from the BEST time I've had in ... gosh ... I don't know how long.

It was a fun party.  Very fun.  Mardi Gras themed ... and I was declared the "Bead Babe"  ... because it was pointed out that the title "Bead Lady" was owned by someone else ... in the neighborhood. 

People always use the term "lady" loosely when referring to me ... and it's been a very long time since anyone called me a "babe" ...

So, yeah, I liked it ... I liked it a lot!

Smiling. Laughing.  Handing out beads.  Enjoying old friends.  Making new ones.  That was my job for the evening.  

Beads & boas & masks ... came on & off all evening ... over my head.  We danced in the restaurant.  Paraded Louis Armstrong-style along the sidewalk. 

Later we wandered across the street for some serious singing to a totally oldies playlist ....

Lots of ground was covered ... during the course of the evening ...

Upon arriving home, I discovered the absence of an earring.  It was somewhat devastating.  And definitely took the glow off the good feelings that I carried in with me.

When it comes to jewelry, I am fairly simple in style and taste.  I don't switch things up much.  My earrings are my favorite ... diamond studs.  Not terribly tiny ones.  I wear them every day ... with everything.

As I wandered upstairs & downstairs ... my emotions were all over the map.

The earrings were very special to me.  A gift that was intended to remind me that I was loved ... day-in-and-day-out ... as I have been working through the process of rediscovering myself ... reclaiming my life.

It's JUST an earring, MJ!  ... I reminded myself.  You don't need an earring to know that you are special.  Not anymore.

... and, yes, the earrings carry a certain amount of monetary value.  That also crossed my mind.  And I knew that I would be making a call this morning to see about insurance.

It took an immense amount of effort not to give in ... to be totally overwhelmed ... by the loss. 

Hoping to determine whether the earring had been dropped during the revelry  ... or had fallen out after my arrival home ... I asked my friend who is staying with me, "Did you notice if I had both of my earrings when I came in?"

Nonchalantly ... she said, "No.  I didn't notice.  Are you missing one?"  When I said that I was she said, "Bummer".  And went on doing whatever she was doing on her laptop ... oblivious of my distress ...
Never have I had a problem with these earrings.  They have backs that screw on.  It's tricky to put them on ... and challenging at times to take them off.  So it has never crossed my mind that one could jump off somewhere ... randomly & undetected.

I went to bed determined to call ... first thing this morning ...the establishments that hosted the festivities last nite.  Futile, I know.  Still.  It was worth a try.

Sometime around midnight, I became restless.  So I came downstairs to the kitchen ... and thought maybe if I sweep the floor ... it will turn up in the dustpan.

Yeah, right.  Like that would happen.  No such luck.

I then wandered through the laundry room .... out to the garage ... to check the seat & floorboard of the car ... one more time ... because maybe it had landed on my clothes ... then fallen from there when I got out.

Who am I kidding?!? 

As many places as I had been during the evening ... there were simply too many other likely spots for it to have come loose ... and landed ... it was a needle-in-the-haystick situation ...

Hopeless.  Discouraged.  I could feel the dreariness that I shook off on Sunday inching it's way back ...

I bent down to pick up a sock that had somehow escaped the dryer as I opened the door to the garage.  And I laughed to myself ... I knew that finding the match to the sock was going to be just as likely as finding my lost diamond.

Opened the door ... and there nestled in a crack in the concrete floor ... was my earring. 

Improbable.  Impossible.  The odds of me ever seeing that earring were something like ...  one in ten million.

Yet there was my diamond ... resting in that concrete crack ... a rough

place in which one would never have looked ,,, not in a hundred-million years ... it was sparkling & winking at me.

Breathless. Speechless.  Overwhelmed.  There really aren't any words to describe how I felt in the moment.

I reached down ... picked it up ... and that's when the laughter came ... outloud ... until tears rolled down my cheeks ...

And the whsiper that followed ... "Get ready for the blessing, MJ.  Open your eyes & see it ... open your heart & receive it!"

... after I went back to bed ... I just laid there in the dark ... pondering ... post-pondering, as I am want to do ... because I was blown away ... not sure what to make of it all ..

I was reminded again this morning ... of a situation that is totally improbable ... impossible ... there's really no chance, after all ... it's just not in the cards ...

Yet ...

As I put my diamonds in my ears ... the whisper came again ...

"Anything's possible, MaryJane.  Do you trust me?"

... and then as if to validate the whisper, my inbox this morning held my daily message from The Universe.  It simply said, "You're there!"

Time will tell, I guess ... where THERE is ...  in the meantime ...

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler !!!

http://www.lifelessons-mj.blogspot.com/
March 2011