I don’t know what to make of some of the odd things that happen to us all. I’m thinking of lost items vanishing and turning up again exactly where you’ve looked a dozen times. As if the objects decided to go for a hike, globe-trotting, sight-seeing. Not long ago I lost my favorite set of keys on my Celtic key chain. One moment it was in my hand, and the next it had vanished. I thought the set must be in my apartment (since I had JUST used it to open the apartment door), but no amount of searching sufficed to find it. The set was gone. Mysteriously.
The loss was more an inconvenience than a calamity, for a I had spare keys. Nonetheless, because I really liked my Celtic key chain that fit my hand comfortably, I prayed to St. Anthony, saint of lost objects, to bring them home. Nothing happened. And then, remembering that Padre Pio, the modest Apulian priest who was graced with stigmata and sainted in 2001, is also said to answer every prayer directed to him – I prayed to him, as well, non-Catholic though I am, to return my keys.
Weeks passed.
Again and again I went through my purse, looking for the keys. Over and over I found myself peering into the little basket at the front door, the next for all my keys, as if I had never looked there before; and every time, of course, in vain. Over the weeks, I must have emptied that basket three, four, even five times, fingering all the keys in the basket, in hopes that my lost set would miraculously reappear.
And of course it did not.
Until yesterday.
When I reached into the basket and pulled out…. my lost keys! On their Celtic key chain! I stood in the hallway, mouth agape. My first thought was that a guest might have found them. Except that no one had been in the house for the past few days. One day the keys were lost. One day they returned.
Is this the power of prayer? And to whom? Padre Pio or St. Anthony? Are angels waiting to be of help? Or am I (and this is certainly possible) simply losing my mind? I remember another occasion when I lost a ring that I adored. I was in Kentucky on business, when I lost the ring. I went back to the rooms where I’d been staying, searched everywhere, left instructions in case the ring turned up, and when I got home I unzipped my suitcase time after time, obsessively inspecting it (as with my key chain basket) in hopes the ring would appear despite the fact that had not been in the suitcase before. I combed my clothes for the ring. I fingered all the hidden pockets in my travel jewelry case, and then I would take the suitcase out of the closet, unzip it once again and once more run my hand and eyes over every inside surface.
One day I took down the suitcase to go on another trip, opened it, and there, lying clearly visible in the middle of the empty space, blinked my ring.
Has anyone else had such an experience? What are we to make of it? I must add that a year or two after the return of that ring it was permanently lost. I was traveling in Peru. I woke up one morning with the clear intuition that today I was going to lose the ring. The premonition was so fierce that I put the ring on my finger, in case my suitcase was stolen; and every now and again all morning, as we drove through the dry desert to Lima, I glanced down at my hand, grateful to see the ring still snug on my finger. I say snug, because I had to pull and twist the ring to get it off. This was not a loose, slippery piece of jewelry.
At one point we stopped at a gas station. I stood at the sink in the Ladies Room. “I better not remove my ring,” I thought, “in case I lose it.” I remember distinctly, therefore, washing my hands with the ring on my finger. I dried my hands and returned to the car, and an hour later, glancing down at my hand, saw – the ring was gone!
I have no understanding of these things. I was dismayed. My only comfort was that somehow, for mysterious reasons, I’d been forewarned. Once earlier, the ring had come back to me under extraordinary circumstances. I did not expect its return a second time. Now, in the case of my just-found keys, I can only try to be particularly grateful, (not to mention careful), lest the next time round they don’t come back again.
sophywisdom 
Wow! This reminds me of what Cynthia Sue Larson calls reality shifts.
I have had that happen. So strange. I lost a painting for awhile and then one day it was right where I had put it, but I had looked there before. Hum…..reality shift? Possible these days.
Dear Sophy: What I have often found so marvelous in what you describe is that the premonition, the “knowing”, offers a sense that all is in order and that all is well. Perhaps that is the essence of prayer–to be reassured that we are guided and watched over. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to more!
James.
yes, all is in order, but there are moments there where you are left hanging in the hallway, wondering what you did wrong… Looking forward to more from you, too.
Sophy wrote in her The Path of Prayer about finding an extraordinary thing in New Mexico. Her friend Dorothy had written an inspirational card that Sophy had tacked up above her writing area.
Fast forward years later when Sophy was in New Mexico, laying on a couch and asking God for help. She then spied a scrap of paper on the bare floor of this little cabin, which had just recently been swept clean. Sure enough, the scrap of paper was the little inspirational card of Dorothy’s that Sophy had tacked to her wall 2000 miles away.
My gosh! I’d totally forgotten. Aren’t you terrific! I still have that note now tacked up above my computer, but of course I wasn’t thinking of that when the keys/ring business happened. Thanks for reminding me. Does this happen to everyone?
Almost none of this stuff happens to me. Sophy, you seem to have had quite a lot of ‘unexplainable’ things happen to you. I am remembering what you wrote about the ghost in your apartment in New York City.
Right now I have lost my bankbook and a beautiful skirt I was dying to wear. Of course, I am moving, so they both could be packed away and I will find them….First I believe in a rational and mundane reason why things get lost, then I consider a more mysterious one.
Well actually, I too usually begin with a rational, mundane reason why things happen, much less get lost, and only when everything all turns wierd and wild on me do I start musing on the impossible. Concerning your bankbook and beautiful skirt, though, I wouldn’t be ashamed to say a prayer to St. Anthony. Very simple: take a nail or screw on a string (or a bead on a necklace) and swing it around 3 times while saying: “tony tony turn around; something’s lost and must be found.” It sounds so dumb that I admire it, and strangely enough it seems to work. Nothing beats, though, the scrap of paper that appeared on the just-swept floor of my house in N.M. when I was having a meltdown — a card that was supposed to be tacked to the bulletin board over my desk 2000 miles away: saying just what I needed to hear at that moment:
” Don’t fret. You have nothing to worry about. Just relax and let things come along in their proper time..Let quiet, peace and harmony rule and avoid stressing situations.. accepting the fact it will work out if you let yourself be led instead of trying for force matters.” I wrote about this in one book. It still battles me how that message could have been sitting in the middle of the just-vacuumed floor. I hadn’t brought it with me to Taos.
Well, I hope he does not take offence if I call him ‘Tony’!
This may not be the time or place, but could you please at some time talk about this late friend of yours, Dorothy? Anyone who said, I have learned so much since I was 90, sounds so very interesting.
Thanks,
Vicki
I wrote about Dorothy in one of my books — I think in The Path of Prayer. Where did you hear the story? I’d love to write more about her, but need to know how much you know now.
Always fun to be reminded, and St. A LOVES to be called, most intimately, Tony! I aver.
S
Yes, I read about Dorothy in The Path of Prayer.
Briefly, this is what I remember you saying: She lived near you in a one room flat. Every morning she put on stockings, garters, a girdle, full make-up with a pearl choker and staggered to her fridge to eat a fruit yogurt. She then staggered back to her chair and thought on her adventurous, often wicked life.
What got me was her saying to you that she had learned so much in her ’90s. I love people who never stop being interested or too old to learn!
Hi, Sophy:
I am the woman who ‘lost’ her beautiful skirt and her bankbook.
Well. you gave me advise to ask ‘St. Tony’ where the lost items were. After I had moved to my new apartment I found the skirt in the same place as I had been looking for it (though not the bankbook). And, after asking Tony for the location of almost any other thing that I had packed away and could not immediately unearth, there they were.
Perhaps there is something to this depending totally on God. Is this dependency a form of praying with out ceasing?
Vicki
PS-That beautiful skirt made me look like a cow! I think it is going to be re-purposed into something else.
maybe this is saying that these things ae managed in their time, not our time?
maybe this is saying, these things are managed in their time, not our time….a test of our patience but they will work it out for us eventually?
Dear Sophy,
Check out transcendental synchronicity. Warm wishes, Roy
i’ll look it up. wierd.
Dear Sophy, Transcendental syncrhronicity. I have come to believe in it. ZIVIO! Roy
This just happened to me! I had lost my watch — taken off for water aerobics — and when I went to put it back on, it was gone. I just assumed that it had been stolen from the gym locker room, even tho’ my locker was locked. I began wearing my late mother’s watch and gave up looking for the other one – after dumping everything out, purse, gym bag all pockets, car, jewelry box etc. Then over the weekend, I was fishing in my purse pocket for the car keys and pulled up the watch! How?
I sure wish this would happen to me. I lost the memory card out of my camera. It contained all the photos I had taken at my sister’s wedding.
BTW I loved meeting you and attending your intuition workshop. I am reading your book on intuition. Our follow up intuition development group meets on 5/20. I attended a Unity prayer chaplain retreat this week end and all that you said about me being an empathic intuitive was confirmed, big time! I hope all is well with you. You have become very special to me.
Angela Stroup.
Click down a few blabs and see where I tell another person how to pray to St. Anthony and don’t forget Padre Pio, or your own angels… just asking them to bring your memory card back! I’m thrilled to hear the group continued after our workshop. That’s wonderful!Good luck. If you have a story to share abou the chaplain retreat, I hope you’ll feel free to share it! I love stories.
Love, S
Sophy thanks for responding. I always do the Tony, Tony look around. Something’s lost and must be found” prayer. I remember you mentioning Padre Pio in the workshop, but could not recall his name. I will seek his help. I will tell you a story from the retreat in a day or two. I am tired now.
Love and blessings,
Angela