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I couldn’t find my car keys. With no time for the extensive search, I grabbed the extra set and left.

When I returned home, the hunt began. The bad news was my keys weren’t in any of the usual places – the kitchen island, the dryer, or the desk. The worst news was my husband Michael was in Houston. He usually locates my keys, sunglasses and purse.

After a day of looking, I went to bed with a horrible thought. What if they fell into the garbage? The next morning, I emptied the large green can and revisited the trash we’d tossed. No car keys. And no Dole Whip keychain (given to me by my granddaughter Adeline for, well, obvious to us reasons), no key to my daughter Monique’s house, no key to my daughter Victoria’s house, no library card tag, and no personalized Aldi’s quarter holder (a gift from my friend Helena).

I stopped obsessing over the lost keys when I decided to list the things I couldn’t do if I never found the keys. Everything I lost could be replaced. That little exercise proved to be a valuable lesson for me. How much do I worry over things I can’t change, and things that don’t change my life? How much mental energy have I wasted getting angry, frustrated and defeated over situations beyond my control?

When Michael returned home his hunt began, then ended when he opened my granddaughter Emma Kate’s LOL dolls’ glamper. There were the keys. I showed them to Emma Kate and said, “Do you know what these are?”

“Yes,” she said pointing to the Dole Whip. “It’s ice cream for my LOL dolls.”

 

 

Ronny Michel can be reached at rmichel@rtconline.com.