Anyone who knows me well knows I have a severe dingaling streak. I come by it very naturally--my exceptionally intelligent parents both contributed this trait to my genetic make up.
So, it will probably not be terribly surprising to learn that I have left my wallet in the grocery cart at the Decatur Kroger at least a half-dozen times (probably more but I don't like to keep track) in the seven years I've lived here. Miraculously, EVERY SINGLE TIME, I have found my wallet, still sitting in the cart, in the parking lot, untouched. That is until tonight. Tonight, someone saw it and turned it in to the customer service desk.
My husband, who finds my dingaling streak to be very low on the list of things he loves about me, says I was "very lucky." Naturally, the only appropriate response is, "Yes, I know."
However, I wouldn't actually describe myself as lucky--fortunate, yes. Lucky? Not so much. I have another theory, at least for this particular type of good fortune--the lost-wallet-retrieved-quickly-and-intact variety. I think it might by my mom. I know that sounds crazy, and it is. But anyone who has lost a loved one can tell you that there are times when you feel their influence very strongly. For me, this is one of them. It goes beyond the leaving the wallet at the Kroger problem I, clearly, have. In my many years of traveling for work, I have lost many things--some never to be seen again. However, on the few occasions when I have done something foolish like left my purse on the door of restroom stall or left my kindle under the seat in front of me and not realized it until I got to my gate or home (after midnight), I either returned to restroom and found my purse hanging there or received a call from the airline letting me know they had my kindle and the sweater I left with it. And when these things are "miraculously" retrieved, I say prayers of gratitude and it crosses my mind and heart, that my mom just might be looking after me.
Interestingly, my sister, who periodically shows she's inherited the same dingaling streak, has had similar experience and similar feelings of "mom intervention."
When I got home from the store this evening and realized I'd left the wallet, I got the girls out of the car and raced back to the Kroger and called their customer service to ask if someone would please go out and see it the wallet was there and hold on it for me. When they told me it had been turned in, the relief was huge! I just returned from a work trip so it had all my trip receipts in it, travel card and passport--the hassle factor would have been ridiculous. I quickly called my husband to let him know. I thanked God and my mother. And tears in my eyes, I called my sister to talk to her about my theory.
It is good to have someone with whom you share a little bit of same sort of "crazy," because they can listen well and understand with a lot less explaining and a lot more working through. We both share the same idea that mom is a big part of our uncanny good fortune in recovering our wallets/purses after total flake outs. My sister suggested that even if it wasn't a guardian angel version of our mom, it could be the goodness she inspired in her life is continuing to influence people to do the right thing and we have been beneficiaries of that goodness. That's reasonable and even a little sane sounding.
Even more "sane" possibility, one that supports another belief of mine, is that most people are basically good and do the right thing. So perhaps it's not all that remarkable that people haven't felt like it was okay to take a wallet that someone had clearly lost. It's just a refreshing reminder that we live in a place with honest people.
Or it is really my mom keeping a helpful eye out for me and good karma and most people are basically good.
