The Bracelet
9 years ago by
Sunday morning, I left my house in a big rush. I had a photo shoot, I was running late, and I needed to bring outfits with me, so I was carrying a big bag –plus add to that my keys, headphones, and a clutch in my hands, and before I shut the door behind me, I remembered to go grab my bracelet, the one Chris got me for my birthday.
I went out into the street with two thousand things on my mind, as usual, and right as I was about to put some music on my headphones, I looked at my wrists, and there was nothing there.
No bracelet.
I started rummaging through my clutch, my bag, and my pockets, then I started looking around me and, still, nothing. That’s when I started to feel kind of dizzy.
I began retracing my steps, making sure to look carefully all along the way. Nothing. I got all the way to my apartment and I told Chris right away what had happened and we went looking for the bracelet together.
But we didn’t find it.
I’d lost it.
After giving Chris a big hug, I left for my photo shoot. I tried not to cry, but tears were streaming down my cheeks and I still felt a little dizzy inside.
I couldn’t understand how this happened. I rarely lose things. Plus, I’m the kind of person who tries to find meaning in everything. I’m a little (too) spiritual maybe – I always tell myself things happen for a reason. I believe in destiny. I believe that, if we lose something, it didn’t belong to us in the first place. Or that we needed to get rid of it for some reason.
But…could that be true for the bracelet I’d just put on so I wouldn’t have to spend the day without it?
I don’t have many things that hold a lot of sentimental value for me. I’ve always been a little wary of things that carry too much emotion – maybe because I’m a pretty sensitive person.
I have a watch my mother got for me, and over the years, it’s become a symbol of her warm and protective presence looking out for me. But the truth is – and you’re probably going to tell me I’m crazy – but when I need a warm and protective presence in my life, I just close my eyes, and I see my grandmother’s smile up in the blue sky somewhere.
I arrived at the photo shoot somewhat on time and, right then, in front of everyone, I burst into tears. And apologized for being so sensitive. And said I wasn’t usually like this. I also apologized for being late and explained what had happened, and everyone tried to reassure me.
Delphine had lost a gold necklace her fiancé had gotten for her in the showers at an Equinox, and she was teary eyed for days. Paul, the photographer, had lost a gold bracelet symbolizing the love between him and his wife, and he’d been extremely stressed out about it – the whole team remembered. Laura, the hairstylist, had also lost a bracelet and she never got over it.
Each person remembered exactly how they felt in that moment.
It made me feel a little better. Just a little.
It’s interesting, the things we get attached to. These symbols, gifts, and objects we put so much meaning into. Even though I talk about fashion and jewelry all the time, I didn’t really realize how much emotion we could attach to things like that.
Obviously, like in every moment in my life, I texted my sister, and told her exactly what I’ve just told you. And this was her response:
“Come on – there’s no such thing as signs. Life is what you make of it – you know that.”
Laetitia Beverragi, or the voice of reason.
Why do you think I text her every second of my life? :)
And after that, I got a text from Chris.
“I love you. You love me. That’s all that matters.”
Yeah, I cried a little more, but only on the inside, because the makeup artist had just started on my mascara and I’d already given enough of a show.
Even so, I still went home in detective mode, looking under cars, asking in all the shops if anyone had brought in a bracelet. But nothing. We even put an ad on Craigslist… but it looks like we’ll never find it. We’ll never be able to explain how this happened. C’est la vie.
Have you ever lost something that was really important to you?
Translated by Andrea Perdue
You may also like
Garance
From the Archives: The Party
Features
A Studio Visit with Zoe Chicco
Features
A Studio Visit with Sophie Monet
Lifestyle
Jacquie’s Bungalow
Features
Studio Visit / Catbird
it sucks when things just go like that, but
I would look on the bright side and be glad I only lost the bracelet and not Chris!…
Ohhh ma pauvre!!!
Je n’ai jamais perdu de bijou ou d’objet pour lequel j’attache une grande valeur sentimentale (je touche du bois)! J’ai perdu pas mal de boucles d’oreilles, mais c’étaient des bijoux que je m’étais achetée à moi-même sans occasion précise, donc pas de symbole ni de signification particulière derrère l’objet.
Le bijou le plus cher à mes yeux : ma bague de fiançailles! Elle est toujours à mon doigt donc normalement, pas trop de risque de la perdre!
Bises
Belle soirée
Le monde des petites
http://www.lemondedespetites.com/
My mother died when I was about 12 and I chose some of her (not expensive, Mexican folky) jewelry and wore it all the time. One day I had the same experience you describe—lost one of the earrings and couldn’t figure out where/why etc. I was devastated. I decided then that my attachment to my mother was not in her things, and that it was dangerous to become too attached to things that you imbue with meaning. I lost a few more of her things over the years, and it hurt for a minute and then I let it go. I still have a few.
We think we have control and then can’t figure out how we lost something so precious. Life is life and it moves forward. Objects appear in the stream and then go under.
Your Chris sent you a wise text……:)
I had almost the same experience as you, beside the fact that I was 14 and that the lost object was her watch. It’s funny because I was devastated when I lost it (I was 18), and now, I’m 33 and I had completely forgotten about this moment of my life until I read that post. Proof that, as you said, we don’t need objects to feel attachment or to remember.
J’ai peu de choses de valeur et à part genre 8 iPhone et 4 paires de super lunettes je n’ai jamais rien perdu… Mais déjà ça, c’est bien relou ! Alors un bijou offert par ton amoureux ! Mais je crois pa trop au destin donc je n’y vois pas un mauvais signe. Par contre j’ai tendance à toujours voir le bon côté et je te dirai que ce bracelet restera pour toujours le plus beau que tu as eu et tu le chérira pour toujours !
Garance je te comprends tellement….la semaine dernière j’ai perdu la place de ciné du 1 er rendez-vous que j’ai eu avec mon amoreux alors que je la gardais précieusement dans mon porte-feuille…fatalité j’ai pensé que nous allions rompre dans la seconde – un signe je te dis! Bon on croise les doigts on est toujours ensemble mais je compatis grandement!!
It’s always so hard to loose something that is sentimental….but it’s worse to loose the person itself…after all an object a bracelets …you can always buy a new one…
xoxo
Yael Guetta
http://www.ftwwl.com
Rien qu’à te lire j’ai les larmes aux yeux (oui, je fais aussi partie du club des sensibles et spirituelles). Cet hiver dernier j’ai perdu ma bague de fiançailles-mariage. Une bague que mon amour m’avait offert à nos 5 ans de couples et lorsqu’on s’est marié on a pas voulu changer. Cette bague était un vrai symbole de tout ce qu’on avait vécu ensemble. Et voila que l’hiver dernier, après une journée de ski je me rend compte quoi ce poids habituel à ma main gauche et bien je ne le sentais plus… Panique… plus de bague… Idem, cherché partout, dans les gants, les milles et une poche de mon manteau, dans la neige, partout. Rien. Ça donne le vertige comme tu dis. Et puis au bout d’un moment, notre fils de 6 ans qui cherchait aussi la bague avec nous et revenu vers nous avec un morceau de corde qu’il avait trouvé par terre, a pris la main de mon mari et la mienne, les a mis ensemble et en nous regardant nous a dit: “Par mon pouvoir je nous unis, vous êtes mari et femme à nouveau”… Knock out… Je ne savais pas si rire ou pleurer, c’était trop mignon. La panique est partie, place au calme, à l’acceptation. “Dans le fond ce n’était qu’une bague”…
Encore parfois j’ai un sursaut en regardant ma main sans la bague, alors je me souviens de mon fils et son “mariage” express et je lâche prise.
@Dafne
je suis très touchée par cette histoire et la réaction de votre fils !
:) Oh, G, I lost my engagement ring while on my honeymoon. My best friend just told me she can’t find her engagement ring for sometime now / happens with three kids in the house :)/. My father lost his wedding band in the first year of marriage /my parents were married for thirty years/. So, I have to agree with your sister – shit happens :). I simply don’t believe in signs. The feeling the first hours and days after loosing it is really awful, though…
J’ai déjà perdu des bijoux et oui, on s’étonne soi-même de sa réaction! Le pire, c’est que lorsqu’on l’a encore, on ne semble pas y attacher trop d’importance. Mais dès qu’on ne l’a plus, c’est un vide!
Bon courage ;)
Cécile
http://www.maxcebycecilej.com
Oh, Garance! Sending you a big hug! When I was in college, my first love bought me a very expensive watch and I lost it. I had been meaning to get a safety catch put on it, but never got around to it…and then this happened. The watch had fallen off my wrist one evening as I was walking back to my dorm from the library (really). I figured that I bumped my wrist against the books I was carrying and it released the catch. I beat myself up over that for a long time, but my boyfriend was very sweet about it. Well, of course that guy and I eventually broke up and a few years later I met my now husband of 34 years. He’s bought me a few lovely things, but nothing takes the place of us.
J’ai perdu cette année en allant à l’enterrement de mon grand-père l’étole que mes parents m’avaient offerte lorsque j’ai obtenu mon master. Je ne suis pas spécialement attachée aux objets, mais c’était en février, et quand j’y pense, je suis toujours enragée de l’avoir oubliée dans le train. Je l’aimais particulièrement, elle était vert amande avec des broderies rose pâle.
Somehow I was sure that I was going to read at the end of the text that you found it.
In such mysterious cases most of the time I do find the lost object in the weirdest place ever. Could the bracelet have fallen somewhere in you luggage, or a pocket? I don t know…
At least I hope if someone has it now to see the post and write.
The sad thing is that we suffer so very much about our lost beloved objects, that even if we find them in a week or a year, all the happiness we live through at that moment can never compensate even half the sad tears we cried.
Heartbreaking. I feel exactly the same way. Not too attached to positions, but a few things like my grandmothers necklace and my mother’s wedding ring–it would kill me to lose them.
But as already written, your Chris sent a wise text. In the end that is all that matters.
(attention, je perDs ou on perD, tu as oublié le D. Comme tu perds ton français, pourquoi ne pas passer tes textes sous word français pour tester l’orthographe avant de les publier ?)
Oui j’ai connu ça aussi, ça fait pleurer, les souvenirs qu’on met dessus, même sur un objet pas porté depuis des années. C’est le souvenir, l’émotion qui va avec. J’essaie de me détacher mais il reste toujours un objet bourré d’émotions qu’on a oublié tant qu’il était là mais qu’un torrents de pleurs nous rappelle combien on y tenait et pourquoi si il disparait.
(un doudou d’enfance, une bague d’ado…)
C’est super le partage que tu as fait en arrivant au studio ! Ca a été un exutoire pour tout le monde, un moment qui soude les équipe, sans le vouloir tu as fait du team building avec un sujet touchant :))))
“Je ferme les yeux et je vois le sourire de ma grand-mere quelque part dans un ciel clair.” Cette phrase est belle et emouvante…..
J’ai perdu un collier que mon mari m’a offert il y a environ 4 ans fait par une artisane donc unique… Je ne l’ai jamais retrouvé et il m’arrive encore de le chercher aujourd hui … Il restera toujours dans ma pensée j’imagine ….
Et oui c’est moins grave de perdre le bijou que l’amoureux !
Adolescente, je portais cette bague tout le temps, comme un talisman et quelques mois avant de passer mon bac, patatra, elle glisse de mon doigt sous la douche pour terminer dans les canalisations. C’était la catastrophe, je venais de perdre mon porte-bonheur, c’était de si mauvais augure ! Mon père a finalement démonté le syphon, peut être un peu touché bien que très loin d’être aussi superstitieux que moi par mon émotion et l’a retrouvée. Je trouve très drôle de la savoir aujourd’hui oubliée dans un coin de ma boîte à bijoux, elle qui avait tant d’importance avant ! Cependant, cet attachement est resté. Je ne la porte peut-être plus, mais je ne m’en débarrasserai pas sciemment. Trop de souvenirs y sont attachés. Aujourd’hui mon talisman a changé, c’est un collier, un cadeau de mon grand-père à ma grand-mère qu’elle m’a offert pour mes 20 ans. Je le porte tous les jours, il est toujours quelque part sur moi. Mais peut-être que comme pour cette bague… il changera :)
Comme je te comprends Garance, cette sensation est horrible…Ce vertige je l’ai aussi ressenti, mais heureusement juste le temps de retrouver un jonc en argent que mon “homme” m’avait offert pour mes trente ans. S’attacher à certains objets est sans doute très humain mais je ne crois pas effectivement que les perdre ait une signification.
I did loose a ring from my Mom but it found its way back to me months later, in different country. It’s really a great story, but it didn’t make me believe in signs.
I had recently lost a tiny leather bag my mum had given be a a present from Japan, which included a small travel bottle of perfume (Byredo’s Gypsy Water) also from her, and Miu Miu sunglasses my boyfriend had given me as a present three days ago. I still wonder how it happened – was I that absentminded? I put all the important and personal things to that bag with purpose of keeping them safe. Did it get stolen? I felt so so so bad, especially for taking so bad care of the gift. Amazingly, my boyfriend surprised me later with identical se to sunglasses. (I better to give him the best presents in the world forever for that) I still do not have the heart to tell my mother about losing her gifts, so anxiously trying to buy identical bag from japan before she comes to visit. I also ordered the perfume. Luckily the things I lost were replaceable -(with tears and financial sacrifice). If the items would have been jewelry or otherwise irreplaceable I would have felt so much worse.
It’s a Carrie Bradshaw moment, she did find her “Carrie” necklace and the perfect moment for her and Garance it’s out there in the universe waiting to be found………at the perfect moment……….
OK, so this is a true story: when I was a kid, I got a delicate white gold chain with my horoscope sign on it and I wore it for years and years and years. It had survived tree climbing, running around like crazy, fights with my brother, my short but intensive volleyball “career”, seaside holidays spent mostly diving … and gradually I started seeing it as almost a part of myself, something I could not imagine being without. I also started seeing it as a kind of my amulet, as if nothing bad could happen while I had it with me.
One day, and I was around 13 at the time, I was just regularly and peacefully walking home from school. I had it around my neck when I left the school, but by the time I was almost home (less then 15 minutes) I suddenly realized it was gone! Missing! Disappeared! It seemed almost indestructible through the biggest part of the growing up of a hyperactive child, only to slid down my neck, unnoticed, while I was calmly walking home! I could not believe it! I was crushed and, even worse, I was overflown with a sudden feeling of uncertainty – I have lost my safety blanket! What did it mean? Whyyyy? I cried myself to sleep that night.
Next morning, I was walking to school still unable to come to terms with the loss of my beloved chain. I was with a few friends and I was trying to be brave and cheerfully chat them up, but my heart was broken. My neck was painfully naked and there was no comforting feeling of the little Scorpio bouncing on my chest with my every step. Suddenly, as we were walking, I saw something flashing in the pavement right in front of me. I could not believe it: it was my chain laid out perfectly on the asphalt exactly on my way, reflecting sunlight as if to make itself more noticeable. It was like magic! I changed my ways to school frequently, sometimes going this way, other times that way…and it was in the center of a big city, where thousands and thousand people had passed since I lost it yesterday- and nobody had noticed it?
I grabbed it, put it around my neck and was the happiest girl in the world…at least, until the puberty hit just a few months afterward, but that is a completely different story.
Ah, mais je te comprends et je partage le sentiment de vertige!!!
Cette année, j’ai perdu (dans un moment de stress comme le tien) un pendentif en argent que mes parents m’ont offert pour mon 10e anniversaire. Le modèle était fait à la main, donc unique, et ça faisait 20 ans que je l’avais. J’ai été inconsolable pendant presque 6 mois, jusqu’à ce que mon copain m’offre un pendentif presque identique pour mon anniversaire. Après avoir appris que j’avais perdu le mien, il a fait le tour des boutiques pendant 6 mois pour essayer de m’en trouver un qui lui ressemble. Adorable! Et quand tu parles de signes, je vois ce nouveau pendentif comme le symbole d’une nouvelle étape de ma vie qui commence. (Une autre abonnée du club des sentimentales et spirituelles!) :)
xxx
I propose that, if we want to imagine things (and I am that kind of person, the romantic one that does believe in signs), we can choose to imagine that you lost the bracelet (well, ok, that part actually happened), that someone found it, someone who is really going through a seriously harsh time at the moment, and that the incident was taken as a good sign by that person, and that it gave him/her hope that things were about to change, someone who is finding comfort and hope whenever he/she looks at the bracelet? and that this was the ultimate reason why Chris gave it to you in the first place? and that the day you lost it was the day that Chris and you realised what is really important?
I know, it may sound silly and twisted, but the thing is, if you want to give a meaning to what happened, you can always choose to give it a positive one…
There will be more bracelets, you’ll see. And even more beautiful than this one.
Yes! I lost half of my honeymoon photos… I never got to see them. Beautiful places like Berchtesgaden, Lake Bled and Sarajevo. The memory stick broke, and before I got it fixed I physically lost it. And it was so stupid: I just misplaced the stick and never found it again. The worst part was that for months, we were convinced we could find it and so I never moved on.
I have the memories of the holiday, of course — and that’s what really matters, and some random photos from the iPhone here and there. But photos mean so much to me, and even three years later since it happened it breaks my heart to think I’ll never be able to have those photos.
When I was little, I had a sticker book that was filled with the BEST stickers that I collected – shiny ones, furry ones, scratch and sniff ones. I loved it like crazy, especially the ones that my mum got me on her travels, and during all my free time, I would obsessively compulsively arrange and rearrange the stickers in straight rows. On my 10th birthday (special year as it was double digits), my mum gave me a HUMONGOUS BAG of stickers as my present. All the best stickers were there. I remember that there were big dinosaurs, colourful unicorns, etc. I stuck everything in my sticker book, ready to bring it to school the next day. My mum said “Are you sure you want to bring it to school? You might lose it.” As usual, I didn’t listen to her. “Yes, yes, yes. I want to bring it to school and show off to everyone my fabulous, unbeatable sticker collection!!!” The next day, on the school bus, somebody stole my sticker book.
It was the worst feeling in the world. I wouldn’t wish that feeling on my worst enemy. I NEVER collected stickers again ever. The incident also killed all my ability to attach sentimental value to objects from that day onwards. Which is probably a very good thing because I lose things all the time.
Sorry for your loss Garance. I really hope the bracelet turns up miraculously and comes home to you!!!!!!! Let us know if it does!
(ouille Garance, révise la conjugaison de perdre, mais je ne te blâme pas ! Je connais le phénomène avec ma sœur qui perd son français à force de ne plus vivre en France, alors vraiment aucune animosité)
J’ai peu d’objets précieux, la bague de mes 25 ans je l’ai perdue impossible de savoir où mais même choisie avec soin j’étais plus désolée vis à vis de ma mère qui me l’avait offerte. Par contre ma bague de pseudo-fiançailles j’ai désespérément essayé de la perdre mais elle est toujours là. Je sais ce n’est pas gentil mais mon amoureux en la choisissant est tellement tombé à côté de la plaque, jamais je n’aurais choisi une baque pareille, que la surprise passée, ça m’a mise en colère, intérieure la colère :-) Depuis j’ai simplement arrêté de la porter, j’ai perdu le gout des bijoux.
Mais je ne suis pas prête à laisser partir des pass de festivals qui me rappellent mes + folles années boulot : en mode regardez les enfants Maman n’a pas toujours eu une vie ennuyeuse ! Même si j’aime ma vie actuelle !
La réaction de Chris, mamma mia c’est ça qui me ferait monter les larmes !
Oh, pas drôle de perdre un objet auquel on tient! Surtout quand on s’y est attaché par qu’il a été par quelqu’un qui y a mis de l’émotion.
Pour ma première communion, j’ai eu droit à la médaille de ma grand-mère. Pourtant, j’ai une ribembelle de cousins, et je suis une des plus jeunes! Eh bien, je l’ai malheureusement perdue un jour, la chaine s’est ouverte et plus de médaille autour du cou… Je me rappelle de la tristesse et de la déception de ne plus l’avoir. Il reste le geste et le souvenir, et j’ai appris à m’en contenter :)
Parfois, le plus difficile à gérer c’est l’attachement de celui qui vous avait offert l’objet perdu (car vous avez remarqué, ce sont toujours des objets offerts qui se perdent !). Failli perdre ma bague de fiançaille le jour même de notre premier anniversaire de mariage. Maritomio était sans dessus dessous et je le regardais, triste mais calme, fouiller toute la maison. J’étais déjà beaucoup plus attachée à mon homme qu’à ma bague, Mais je sentais combien c’était important pour lui et Dieu merci, nous l’avons retrouvée !
Bon courage :-) !
It’s the most dreadful feeling, those first moments… I’m so sorry to hear about your bracelet. Don’t give up hope. And try to be gentle on yourself. I lost my engagement ring several years into my marriage. And I nearly died when I realized it. I loved my ring and it meant the world to me (my husband bought it in Italy, where we eloped). When my husband wasn’t home I tore the house apart. Nothing. A few months later when I could stand it no longer, I slipped out and bought another one (a near match) (and I wiped away tears the whole time in the store) (and it was so much money I couldn’t stand it). My husband never noticed. ONE YEAR to the day, I get a phone call from my husband who was visiting our friends at their summer house, saying that they’d found an engagement ring. My husband said, it’s not yours is it? I COULDN’T EVEN SPEAK. At that moment, I remembered I’d taken it off and hung it on a tiny hook in an out of the way place in the bathroom. I cried uncontrollably. The long and short of it is my husband said exactly what Chris said to you. Could we be any luckier to have such lovely men in our lives? I kept both rings for another year or so before I finally had them made into one ring. And it’s beautiful. Bonne chance. x
ok, voici ma ptite histoire; THE RING. car moi aussi je suis (j’étais?) supersticieuse: le jour de notre mariage, le curé s’est trompé dans nos alliances (ben oui oui, ça arrive…personne ne pense à ce genre de choses…) bref en pleine réception lorsque je commence à me sentir envahir par trop de (vieilles) tantines inconnues je demande si quelqu’un à vu mon mari?? un serveur me répond qu’il est parti aux urgences car il avait le doigt tout gonflé à cause de son alliance trop petite!!! je rêve, c’est une blague? non, apparemment pas… alors, j’enlève mon alliance et je lis l’ordre de nos prénoms à l’intérieur. ok mon franc tombe. il a mon alliance et j’ai la sienne. la chaleur le jour J, mes grandes mains, le curé s’est trompé :) on m’apprend que mon mari est allé en cuisine pour essayer de la scier (quoi??? scier une alliance le jour de notre mariage? un signe? au secours…) mais sans y parvenir (ouf) ils ont filé aux urgences. il est revenu 45 minutes plus tard et on a re-échangé nos alliances….ouf, le signe de notre amour est revenu en entier. je me sentais nettement mieux et tout le monde a applaudi; ça a changé des “félicitations.” “vous avez de la chance pour le temps”…. Seulement voilà, ironie du sort, quelques mois plus tard, mon mari jouait bêtement avec son alliance et puis, hops, elle a disparu, introuvable, perdue à jamais… bref, il n’a plus d’alliance depuis plus de 6 ans!! ça choque tout le monde ‘quoi, tu n’en rachetes pas?’ ben non; il prétend que son doigt est traumatisé des alliances…j’ai dit que j’allais lui en faire tatouer une hihi. bref, tout ça pour en revenir à la même conclusion: ne pas s’attacher aux choses mais bien aux sentiments xx peut être que pour nos 10 ans de mariage, on lui achètera une nouvelle alliance? ou pas… peut être que pour tes 50 ans tu auras un nouveau bracelet…ou pas :)
I recently lost a bracelet a friend gave me from her travels through South America. Somehow it turned into a keychain-bracelet that I’d wear out, in town, all the time. It was beautiful, turquoise and handwoven… I was in a rush, and just like that it. disappeared into thin air. I looked for hours. I even climbed into a dumpster to look for it. I could care less about the house-key. I had another. But that bracelet was the best friendship gift! I still look for it!
Je me suis fait voler mon portefeuille. Argent, billet pour Londres, ok…
Mais. Dedans, il y avait un mince et petit feuillet d’un hôtel de Leningrad (c’était alors Leningrad) avec le numéro de ma chambre.
Ca ne représente personne, ça ne se rachète pas, je ne suis même pas coupable (j’ai été volée, j’ai rien perdu) mais c’est un déchirement de ne plus l’avoir. 15 ans après, j’y pense encore.
Après, j’ai arrêté de mettre des choses importantes dans mon portefeuille. Ou peut-être de croire qu’un mince et petit feuillet pouvait être une chose importante.
Garance–I am so sorry! That is a terrible feeling. You feel fragile and vulnerable. I lost an earring in Paris on my way home from a meeting. I figured it out just as I was unwrapping my scarf. It was December, and I tried to retrace my steps in the fading light, but it was gone. I also lost a favorite bracelet in Belfast, and I did it in some short distance between my hotel room and a restaurant. Again, gone. And, I lost a bracelet from a friend. I was in graduate school, walking behind a building on the way home, and it dropped off in the snow. I kept hoping it would emerge with spring. I understand why you feel spiritual about these things, that they have meaning–because they do. I am sure you will have another gift from Chris that feels special, like his hand on your wrist. x
When my sister and I moved out of our parents’ house, she took my old jewelry box with her. It still had my favorite pieces inside (a cartouche my dad got me in Egypt, various jewelry he picked out for us when on business trips, a vintage Timex watch from my mom, and some necklaces friends had made for me). I thought she would pick out those pieces for me and save them back, so when she said she was donating what was in the box, I told her that was fine. Unfortunately, she donated all of my treasured pieces along with the junk that I had collected. I was devastated when I found out. I won’t ever get those pieces back, but I remember them and what they meant to me, so that has to be enough.
Ah Garance, oui je crois aux signes ! Mais si je perds quelque chose qui m’est cher je ne crois pas que ce soit un signe, c’est juste le signe que je suis trop dégoutée et triste.
Bisous
Sylvaine alias PTAK !
The best and most beautiful thing that came of this loss is the text that Chris sent you. That’s a memory that is worth more than the bracelet. The bracelet was only a symbol of his love. Nothing else. There will be more symbols. . .but nothing beats or can replace the real thing – the actual love he has for you and that you have for him.
BTW, I am not sure I believe in “signs”. In my opinion, signs and superstition emanate from fear or insecurity. It does not sound as if you have anything to be fearful of or insecure about. I agree with your sister. Life is what you make of it. Love lives because of the daily nourishment you give it. It doesn’t go away because a bracelet did.
That said, I can appreciate your sadness. I’ve lost many beautiful pieces of diamond jewelry that my Mom gave me over the years. I can remember her happy face when she handed me these gorgeous things – how she reveled in my happiness in those moments. And then I lost them. That is the part that makes me sad.
Things… Things only yet they have sentimental value. I have several of such importance. All were gifts from my ex fiancé whom I let go. Their value grew each day along with the burden of tears I cried realizing our moments were those most wonderful memories of youth and happiness and mutual joy and life observations we have shared. Loosing my dear life companion left me with the collections of bracelets’ and earrings and the most special, Italian glass blue ring – the perfect quintessence of La Cote d’Azur when we visited in Nice for holidays. As he wouldn’t speak to me now I only have this ring as the reminiscence of how he loved me and cared of me. Be sure in life you cherish people ABOVE things, always.
Alors là je me reconnais bien dans cette perte de bijoux, à peu près il y a quelques mois j’ai perdu une bague en or magnifique que mon amoureux m’avait offerte et pareil j’y ai vu un signe! j’ai eu beau revenir sur mes pas fouiller mes poches, rien aucune bague et effectivement le fameux vertige! surtout quand c’est quelqu’un qui vous a offert ce cadeau précieux on s’en veut d’être aussi tête en l’air maladroite d’avoir toujours des milliards de choses en main.
Rhoooo… je suis triste pour vous du coup.
J’ai perdu 6 heures ma montre sur le quai de la gare.
Ma montre spéciale achetée à NYC elle me donnait de la force, de la détermination de la puissance et aussi l’heure accessoirement !.
C’était la faute à tous ses sacs qui avaient dû forcer sur mon poignet …j’étais comme toi désamparée…
puis j’ai amorcé le deuil, avec le déni pendant tout le trajet “car ce n’était pas possible, moi qui ne perds jamais rien”.
En arrivant chez ma mère je lui raconte mon malheur, ma montre fétiche et patiti et patata.
Ambiance fin du monde.
Et puis j’offre à ma mère son cadeau je lui donne le sac en plastique direct , dedans elle trouve son cadeau et ma montre qui y était tombée.
C’était un miracle, j’ai remercié Dieu qui avait veillé sur moi et sur ma montre… oui carrément.
Si je peux te donner un conseil, vois des signes quand tu retrouves quelque chose pas quand tu le perds. Pourquoi s’infliger une double peine ?
I hate losing things — but that’s life and a bracelet is just a bracelet.
http://hashtagliz.com
My father didn’t wear a wedding ring but he did wear a gold monogrammed signet ring that he and my Mom bought at Tiffany’s when they were in New York on their way to Europe. He wore it constantly until he lost it in the pine straw on Hilton Head. After painstaking searching, they found it, only to have him lose it again a few years later. He replaced it with an almost identical one, just slightly different font for the monogram, and he wore it until he died. Mom gave it to me and we took it to be sized as I wanted to wear it for his memorial service. A couple of days after he passed, I was sitting in the car while Mom was returning a casserole dish to a neighbor and I opened the glove box between the two front seats. There, as if it had just been placed, was the original signet ring. I picked it up, walked to the door where my Mom was still talking and silently placed it in her hand. She jumped back as if it was a hot coal. The neighbor exclaimed, “It’s Bill’s way of telling you that he’s still with you!” to which I added “And he’s still giving you jewelry!” So until the day my Mom died, we each had Dad’s ring to wear. I tap on it when I want to tap into his energy, as I do believe that you imbue the pieces you wear with your own spirit and energy.
Don’t give up on that bracelet quite yet. Or just think that all the love that it has stored up is now being transferred to someone who needs it more than you do.
Jane – wow … that was fabulous. I loved reading this. How lovely for both you and your mom to have had that piece of your dad with you. He was absolutely reaching out. I love that. Take care…
Losing things – especially fine jewelry is so painful! I lost an earring once when I was about 15, and I still have a hard time wanting nice jewelry because I don’t want to go through that pain.
Warm Regards,
Alexandra
http://www.littlewildheart.com
My favorite poem about loss by Elizabeth Bishop. I lost a beautiful Cross pen my father gave me after I finished my Masters degree. I think of it years later and feel sad-sick. I’m sorry for you. Maybe the poem will help.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176996
You know, something like this happened to me twice: I got a ring that my mother gave me on the day I first moved abroad stolen at the gym (Cartier trinity, it was hers and she just took it off her finger and put it on mine); then my (wonderfully generous, beloved) sister ended up giving me another Cartier trinity for Xmas, which – quelle surprise – I also got stolen (by my then roommate’s guest; no more roommates after that). I remember the pang in my heart that you feel the second you realize it’s gone. That second time however, the thief also took a ring my grandmother had given me – which was the first gift my grandfather had ever bought her, spontaneously, on a romantic stroll through Vienna. And having lost this token of my grandfather’s love was really quite something. The ring was tiny (it was wartime and they were very young and poor), but it just meant so much to me. I really burst into tears and still haven’t been able to tell my grandmother about it.
Anyway, long story, but what I actually wanted to say is: I’m sure someone found your bracelet and just took it. What helped me was the thought that somebody (even though they are filthy thieves) might love this piece of jewelry; that it might just continue it’s journey on another person’s hand/arm.
Also, if that thought is not uplifting to you: They probably really, like really, really, fucked up their Karma :)
You’re wonderful, Garance, and what really matters is love and the people you love in your life, not things.
Ooh Ana, I too always think how the thief that took my ring(s) must suffer terribly from the karmic consequences. Which is so contrary to the minset one must have to genuinely believe in karma in the first place. :-) Very confusing.
Je m’imagine très bien ton désespoir… Mais bon, le bracelet n’est plus là, Chris par contre oui, et votre amour aussi. Je crois par contre, et j’espère que cela ne m’arrivera jamais, que je ne supporterai pas de perdre un objet fétiche qui me relie à un proche décédé…
Mais de temps en temps je repense à cette fine chaîne en or avec un médaillon doté de la Vierge, que je n’ai que rarement portée car je ne suis pas croyante, mais que je m’en veux vraiment d’avoir perdue. Elle m’a été offerte par feu ma mamie, et j’aimerais tomber dessus un jour, par hasard, car je suis sûre qu’elle est dans ma maison. Ma mère, 15 ans après, me reproche encore régulièrement de l’avoir perdue, et reste persuadée, 15 ans après, que je l’ai revendue ado pour acheter du cannabis…!!! J’ai beau lui expliquer que jamais je n’aurais fait ça, elle reste sceptique, ça me fait presque marrer qu’elle doute encore de mes paroles…
This drawing is beautiful: the hat, the hair, the nails, the light pink shirt, she is French this girl ;)
Bisous from France,
*-* Sand. *-*
http://www.taimemode-fashionblog.com
Ma mère m’a donne une paire de boucles d’oreille que mon grand-père lui avait offert en 1939 pour leurs fiançailles….Une des deux avait failli être perdue, mais ma grand-mère l’avait retrouvée. Elle les portait toujours…elle est morte le 4 juillet dernier a quelques semaines de son 99 eme anniversaire – malgré leur divorce et le fait que mon grand-père se soit remarie’, ils s’écrivaient e s’apellaient toujours pour leurs anniversaires…love forever et malgré tout quoi….Je porte ces b.d’o depuis quelques mois, et les pierres, d’un azur profond comme les yeux de ma grand-mère me faisaient sentir fortement sa présence bienveillante….
Il y a quelques jours, fatigues et tendus par mille détails de vie quotidienne de couple avec deux enfants ayant récemment adopte un chien, donc le bazar chez nous – nous étions tous en train de nous engueuler….quand, out of the blue, je m’aperçois que le fermoir est reste attache, mais pas de trace d’une des b.d’o….Inconsolable, je pleure et cherche de partout….j’ai senti un truc, comme si Eve nous disait…”Mais arrêtez donc!”…
I’m so sorry about the bracelet Garance! I lost a gold charm bracelet my mom bought for me. My parents always struggled financially and money was pretty tight in my household. Shortly before we moved to the US, my mom saved up money and me a gold charm bracelet. I had always wanted one with cute, dainty little charms. I was so excited and happy when I received it and never took it off. Fast forward a couple years later, I was at school near the football field bleachers for PE and realized the bracelet was gone. I searched everywhere on the ground, in the dirt, around the area, checked lost and found…nothing. I came home to my mom in tears. For me, it symbolized her love and sacrifice for her children..how she works so hard to make her children happy. I realize the bracelet is just a material object, and even though I never found it, that my mom’s love is always there.
When I was in high school I lost a gold necklace with a very small Madonna ceramic pendant that was ringed in delicate gold as well, that had belonged to my big sister, who drowned when she was 13. I’ve never stopped thinking of it, and missing it.
Hug.
It’s very hard not to multi-task which is what you described you were doing. Multi-tasking is a myth because there’s always a cost to it.
Slow down and stay focused. It might save you from losing another “valuable” thing.
I can totally identify with you. Through the years though, I understood that I was self sabotaging myself, especially while I was living something very special. I was reading occult meanings in things that were actually meaningless and expecting…the worse.Your fellow-countryman, Victor Hugo, said: “Fate shuffles the cards, but we play the game”. Enjoy your life, your love, your friends and don’t worry about the destiny.
Oh Garance that must have been awful. I am so sorry. I always asked St. Anthony to help me find things as I wandered around my house searching.
I have a simple yet amazing sapphire and diamond band my mom gave me a long time ago. I love it I can wear it everyday. But when life is hard or she is sick I always put it on. It’s like a comfort for me. My parents have been handing me down jewelry for a few years now and most of those special pieces I couldn’t bear to lose.
I hop your bracelet is stuck in a pocket somewhere and you find it. But in the end having Chris I’m sure is better then any bracelet.
On my 21st birthday, my family gave me diamond earrings and I loved them and almost never took them off. They became a part of me and one summer, somewhere on the grass, I lost one stud. I searched everywhere, I cried, I was sad for weeks (not depressed like but still). When I lost it, I felt a little part of me also got lost (I don’t mean to sound dramatic), they were the part of my life for seven years. Three years passed, and I still miss them and this post, definitely hit the spot. And I am not sad about loosing a diamond stud, I am sad because it was given to me by my favorite people on earth. I am very sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing.
Calin… :(
Mais comme il a dit: you guys love each other, that is all that matters!
ps: Caliiiiin!!!
When I was in university, I made a trip to Vancouver to visit with my great aunt who was my maternal grandfather’s sister. She was an inspiring person with an amazing spirit who had overcome two disabilities — a crippled leg polio and then complete blindness caused by macular degeneration. She lived by herself and managed with the help of family and friends nearby.
Anyway, we had a great time together and I took a few photos because I had a feeling this was the last time we’d be able to spend time together. This was in the days before digital cameras and the developer lost the photos — the only time this has ever happened to me. I was heartbroken. She died only a few months later. It still pains me to think about losing the pictures of her.
My parents gave me a beautiful sapphire and diamond ring for high school graduation, which I promptly lost a few weeks later, along with all my other favorite jewelry (lost in transport from an overnight with friends). It was a major gift from my budget-conscious parents and I felt beyond sick about it. When I told my dad, he hugged me and said, They’re just THINGS, sweetheart; It’s ok. That lesson (and his example of compassion and grace with his knucklehead daughter) was worth way more than the ring itself. It still hurts to think of that gorgeous ring which I would have passed on to my daughter, but mainly it reminds me about what truly matters. I hope, when the sting subsides, that you and your boyfriend can look back on this and find a silver lining too. In the meantime, so sorry – no getting around that it hurts to lose something special and beautiful.
In March I lost my beloved and most favourite necklace, which I wore everyday, on a trip to Washington. I can`t have done the catch up properly and during brunch, reached up to touch it as I did constantly and it wasn’t there. I retraced my steps, left my name everywhere I`d been – but nothing. I was and am so sad to lose it. I`m single, no-one bought it for me, I bought it for myself when I lived in Geneva, at my favourite boutique. It was a beautiful 22 carat gold pendant in the shape of a high-heeled sandal on a gold chain and it represented to me an extremely happy and successful time in my life, as well as my deep and abiding obsession with beautiful shoes! I miss it terribly but I was lucky to have it at all and still have the memories of that wonderful time in my life. Now I live in Mexico, where there is a lot of great jewelry and am on the lookout for something just as lovely.
I lost a stone from the ring given by my husband for my son’s birth. I was wearing the ring every day and once I looked at it and boom – no stone. I am still not over it and don’t know what to do with the ring..
Hugs to you!
Garance, you still may find it…you never know..
There are people who just lose everything all the time, but I think it hurts more if you’re not the kind of person who loses things generally. I always have my passport, always have my phone – but know people who lose their phone or passport every week seemingly! If you’re not the losing kind, it gives you a kind of unnerving jolt when something important to you is just gone, like the world just spun the wrong way on its axis – some kind of very strong cognitive dissonance.
I still remember things I lost 20 years ago and the feeling it gave me. I lost the watch my grandmother had given me for my 18th birthday which was really special to me as she’d died since then, and I was sure I’d left it in the bathroom at work while I washed my hands. I had several suspects I held the theft against and probably behaved really weirdly towards for two years, until I found it at home behind my washing machine when it was being fixed!
You never know!
My grandmother also lost the diamond from her engagement ring and found it much later, glinting in the scuttle where they kept the coal for the fire (a very long time ago!)
oh, I feel you – my then fresh boyfried and today a husband of five years, love of my life, had just given me twenty red roses, each two meters long. Got on the train and forgot them there… I do not share the theory of signs but in this case I agree with Freud who said, there are no coincidents. I hate red roses. (And still do, but still get them occasionally – who would break the heart of the love of their life?:-))
J’ai perdu les lunettes que ma grand-mère a portées quand elle était jeune et qui lui étaient très chères… le lendemain du jour quand elle me les a offertes, lorsque je suis rentrée chez moi en bus. J’avais 7 ans, j’étais dévastée et je me souviens encore de sa déception.
Oh I totally recognize this. I lost my favorite scarf years ago and even though it was a cheap (and when I think of it, very ugly…) scarf I still miss it. The same for an earring I got from my boyfriend (now husband). I still have the other one and I just can’t say goodbye to it! I hope you will find it somewhere you don’t expect is someday soon!
Aaah Garance je me suis sentie à ta place en lisant ce post…Quelle sensation terrible quand ça arrive, et à travers tes mots je te sens encore ébranlée par cette perte. ..ça s’estompera avec le temps mais toujours avec un petit pincement au coeur :/
I am so sorry to hear that you lost something that is so sentimental and important to you–but Chris’ words top whatever the bracelet was worth!
There is only one thing in my life that, if lost, I would be a total wreck over! And that is my precious Boston Terrier, Maggie! She has such high energy and always tries to scoot out the door, ahead of me and I’m so obsessively afraid I will lose her someday. She is the love of my life (besides my boyfriend Tom!) and I have nurtured her since she was a very sick little pup of 8 weeks old (her breeders were horribly irresponsible come to find out)…love her with all my heart and would be ever-so devastated if this should ever come to pass! (Getting her a chip is on my priority to do list!)
(=’.’=)
-Lauren
adorn la femme
ooooo, même ou presque la même histoire :( mon bracelet cadeau d’anniversaire de mon amour, je l’ai perdu en allant à Roland Garros, on était ensemble et je me suis rendue compte une fois à la maison, c’était terrible. La 2ème fois je perdais quelque chose (la première, je me suis fait volé l’iphone :(((
c’est triste mais parfois on n’y peut rien :(
I lost TWO rings that are irreplacable.
1) the antique ring my boyfriend gave me when our son was born. Vanished.
2) the diamond ring I inherited from my sweet grandmother, a ring she bought for herself at a very meaningful moment in her life (she had a tough life, with a lot of losing of loved ones). This was -most likely- stolen from my house by the cleaning help.
I fear I will never in my life get over losing either one, exactly because of the meaning they had. It can’t be helped, jewelry is a vessel, a coathook for human emotions and a portable milestone.
Your story catapulted me right back into the sadness I still feel over losing those two rings and made me cry.
Having said that, Chris is right. What a perfect response to your agony.
With you in spirit,
x
Ma pauvre!! Je comprends tellement cette douleur… Mais si cela peut te rassurer (un peu) mon mari a perdu son alliance 3jours après notre mariage en pleine mer… Et bien nous sommes toujours aussi heureux! ;)
Et merci de partager avec nous ces petits morceaux de vie!
H.
I’m so sorry!
Yeah, me too…
I lost a 2$ ring (I got it from the vintage market). But I had just liked it so much! I still miss it. Weird, right?
And once when our home was broken into, all my gold jewellery was taken. All of the things had been presents from someone.
Oh, well. I do tend to get attached to things. But I try not to. They are just things! Really. Hard, but true.
Life is always easier for those who let go.
Chère Garance, je comprends ce que tu ressens….j’ai égaré la bague de naissance de mon fils…il était écrit à l’intérieur Notre Raphaël. Je crois que j’aurais préféré perdre mon alliance…
J’ai toujours un pincement au coeur quand j’y pense…
Grosses bises
Oh, comme je suis désolée pour toi ! Je te comprends. Mon mari a perdu son alliance dans un lac tandis que nous célébrions le fait que nous allions devenir parents. Ma grand-mère ne cessait de répéter que cela portait malheur… Nous venons de célébrer nos 11 ans de mariage… si cela peut te rassurer;-) Depuis, je ne porte plus de bijoux autres que des coups de coeur mode. J’ai trop souvent eu l’impression que quelque chose se cassait dans ma vie quand je perdais une bague, cassé un bracelet ou un pendentif offert par une personne particulière. Le texto de Chris, ça, ça compte plus encore ! :-)
Oui, et, en effet, la perte d’un objet qui est chargé d’un sentiment ou d’une émotion, a toujours une signification. C’est comme ça.
J’ai perdu mon gland. Si quelqu’un l’a vu merci de me bigophoner,
Cdt
Such an awful feeling when you lose something that has a sentimental value. I lost a very expensive brooch my grandmother gave me. It was very old and passed down from generations. I was raised by my grandparents, so I was very close to my grandmother.She passed away when she was only 65, of cancer. I moved from Europe to Canada, so this brooch and just a couple of other things were all I had from my grandma. I cried for weeks when i lost it! I came to accept it that it was just a material thing, and the love and the beautiful memories I have of my grandma are really the most precious ones, and I will not be losing those.
Salut Garance!
Moi je vais t’encourager; j’ai perdu une bague de famille (tu c’est la bague que tu hérite de ta grand-mère) or et rubis, sublime que j’ai toujours adoré. J’étais anéantis, j’ai stresser tout le bureau (seulement des hommes) de chercher ma bague. Rien… lundi soir désespérée j’ai demandé dans ma tête à ma grand-mère (morte) de m’aider à la trouver. Coïncidence ou miracle, mardi soir j’ai le trouver dans la boue en arrière de mon auto (sur la rue ou de centaine d’auto sont garer chaque jour) proche du travail.
Regarde par terre toujours, dans les coins … un lunatique qui la frapper et le bracelet à atterrir là où on ne pense même pas …
Je te souhait de la trouver bientôt … xxx
Its heartbreaking to loose these things but thats all they are, things! If possible re-purchase the bracelet Chris gave you and move on with tour life
MyDear!!!!
LOVE is all you (we) need!!!
AND you have it!!…live it ..love it..love
My fiance built me a bike when we first started dating about 7 years ago and last year someone stole it and I was heartbroken for weeks…. :( It’s a terrible feeling.
Maybe somebody stole it! Like when you’re on the street :/ I lost my ipod in NYC too. I was dragging tons of luggage and listening to music, like you with many things on my mind and I didn’t even realize that the music just stopped and somebody had snatched my ipod :/// im so sorry for u eh
I was 14 when I got this lovely pair of pearl earrings from they boy that I had a crush on. About 2 years later I lost one of them. I was devastated. Still, I shouldn’t complain, I have one earring and every time I look at it, it reminds me of the precious moment that I had.
Quand je travaillais chez Y. Yamamoto ma responsable un jour a perdu ses bagues qu’elle chérissaient tant. J’ai cru qu’elle ne s’en remettrai pas vu la valeur sentimentale… Elle m’a dit qu’à chaque fois qu’elle perdait qq chose d’important elle relativisait en se disant que l’objet allait désormais avoir une nouvelle vie avec qq un d’autre et que c’était ainsi moins dur.
C’est devenu ma philosophie lorsque je perds qq chose et ça marche plutôt bien !
Longue vie à ce bracelet où qu’il soit !
Ecoute moi je possède une montre en or et je me dis depuis toujours qu’un jour on me la volera ou bien je la perdrai, et je suis psychologiquement préparé à ce jour. L’année dernière en allant chercher un colis volumineux je m’aperçois au retour que ma montre n’est plus à mon poignet : ma préparation psychologique fait son oeuvre et j’en fais mon deuil presque instantanément… pour m’apercevoir quelques minutes plus tard qu’en retirant mon manteau elle était tout simplement tombée sur mon lit ! Ayant pu ainsi tester ma réaction en situation réelle, je me félicite d’être parvenu à un degré satisfaisant de détachement vis à vis des objets.
I feel you. My husband lost a family bracelet that my mother gave him when we married. He wore it every single day for more than 10 yeara and then he lost it. He still doesn’t know how. He noticed it was missing right in a middle of a pitch for an important job, and was so shocked not to see it there, that he simply could not continue and just made all the clients look for it. His demented look probably scared them. It was never found and it is still a sore point, we still cannot mention the “bracelet”.
So sorry for the loss of your jewelry . I know the sickening feeling. My husband gave me a lovely Tiffany bracelet for my birthday. The clasp was not secure and I asked tiffany to repair the clasp . Although it was repaired it fell off while we were on a trip and I never knew exactly where it was lost. It caused me to feel so sad that I wrote a letter to Tiffany explaining the events. Tiffany mailed me a a replacement without any questions. What amazing corporate responsibility.
Was your clasp faulty?
Oh, that’s the worst! Condolences. Years ago, I lost my “lucky” brooch that my late grandfather gave me. It was a man’s tie pin made of gold with a tiny wishbone and a ruby in the middle of it. Really unusual. He’d bought it from an Irish friend of his who was totally broke, but refused to take the money my grandfather offered him, as he thought it was charity. But he’d sell the pin, no problem. It always reminded me of what a dignified and kind person my grandpa was. Losing it on the subway was awful. I still have the old box it came in, which is a bit pathetic.
(If you ever see a little brooch matching this description, get in touch.)
There are no such things as signs. Sorry you lost something which was dear to you, but the reason it meant a lot was because of who gave it to you, and he’s still there.
Whacky thought, but you’re from Corsica, so you were probably brought up as a Catholic, so why not light a candle to St Anthony, the patron saint of lost things? I know people who swear he works, and they’re not super-religious.
Ohhh… I feel for you!
I am super careful with things, and rarely lose anything.
However, ehe same thing with two precious pieces happened to me, one of which was my engagement ring that I never take off, but I found unexpectedly on my prayer altar, after noticing it was gone from my hand after I had left a furniture shop a day earlier; and the other item was a pendant from India that was a gift from a close and now-dead friend, which was lost forever.
However, there is a reason why we say, “Lost and Found”. Because when we lose something tangible, and we always find something intangible in its place – whether it is
(1) the realisation that so many here on this thread have observed – that you realise how deep is the love of your love of your life for you, and their wisdom that their gift to you was but an item, a small symbol, a toekn – and not the totality of their un-containable, real love for you… and/or
(2) your at-first-painful-realisation – then acceptance – of all material things being transient.
It may sound all Buddhist-weird and all… but it is true, I have found! Whatever material things we have in life are all lessons to us, of “Lost and Found”. We find love, lose love and find it again… only to lose it again perhaps. We find an item we adore wearing, it gets ripped and irreparable, and we must discard it. We are given keepsakes and heirlooms, and sometimes they get lost permanently.
I believe things happen for a reason for sure! Maybe the bracelet catch was loose and it fell off: maybe it was slightly too big and it slid off. Maybe there’s a deeper lesson: some people believe when you lose a precious piece of jewellery like this, it’s because you were meant never to have that item for long and losing it accidentally like this averted a more disastrous way for you to lose the item – say a burglary or mugging.
Even if – like your sister says, “don’t read so much into things; that’s just life?” – there is one thing we are all more peaceful for: and that is, when we become detached from things – not in a dissociative way, but enjoy things as they are for the moment: don’t think about “what-if”, we grieve far less.
When something is gone – even after you’ve done your best to look for it, then know that you’ve just been given a chance to learn more how to love something with your whole heart for the “now”, and to learn to detach and grow from the pain of loss you’ve felt.
This is the greatest thing we can have in life – to love for the moment, whilst realising it could end tomorrow. That is truly living. Young children do it all the time – they love something wholeheartedly, it breaks or they lose that thing, they feel the pain and then they move on.
I wear antiques and pre-loved all the time… I often think about the previous owners of my clothes and jewellery and homewares, and hope that wherever they may be and however these items may have come to me (they died; the items were lost like yours and someone found it and picked it up from the ground to sell; they had to sell due to the wolf at their door; or – God forbid – the items were stolen- you never know with vintage), these previous owners know that their precious items have now found a loving home with me.
And, when I die, all these items will hopefully be found by someone else who will enjoy using them as much as I do now.
I believe in signs too. But that doesn’t lessen the pain in loosing something. I share your pain. When I loose things, my wife consoles me by saying that the item “…has decided to go on a trip on its own.” Last but not least, yes, it was meant to be; that you and the bracelet had to part. There was nothing you could have done to prevent it. Only time will heal your wound.
….oh, i see how sad you must have been. I’m sorry. this February doing a part of Camino De Santiago i lost an earring that i bad been wearing for 12 years. It hard been a gift from my best friend, i wore it all the way up of my ear, where my cartillage is pierced. Well. I wear a different now. i still miss my diamond-studded thing…
Je comprends bien ce que tu ressens. J’ai moi-même perdu la bague que mon mari m’avait offerte pour la naissance de notre fils. Oubliée sur le lavabo des toilettes d’un grand magasin. J’ai réalisé mon étourderie 5 minutes plus tard et me suis ruée dans les toilettes, où il n’y avait évidemment plus rien. Je me sentais non seulement triste mais affreusement coupable, comme si j’avais méprisé l’amour de mon mari et la naissance de mon fils…
oh je compatis … et je comprends que tu sois sans dessus-dessous surtout que tu viens de le recevoir :-((( moi aussi je cherche ma bague préférée (avec un diamant) que mon mari m’avait offert. c’etait ma bague de fiancaille et voila un jour a force de l’emporter partout avec moi, je l’ai perdu et je n’ai aucune idée ou elle peut etre. J’avais aussi demandé partout autour de moi, cherché mais je ne desespere toujours pas de la retrouver. j’ai l’impression qu’elle va réapparaitre car je ne peux pas m’imaginer qu’elle ne soit plus la … bizarre non ?
moi j’ai fait l’erreur de ne pas en parler a mon mari tout de suite… il aurait pu m’aider a reflechir ou elle pouvait se trouver mais je viens de lui dire seulement le WE dernier : grande erreur de ma part. peut-etre que tu vas le retrouver …
Bon alors moi j’ai mon petit truc. Ca vient de ma grand-mere. Elle prie Saint Antoine a chaque fois qu’elle pert quelques choses et promet quelques choses en echange de retrouver l’objet perdu. Souvent de l’argent pour une oeuvre caritative, parfois du temps… Ca depend. Et elle retrouve toujours tout ce qu’elle a perdu. Elle prie aussi Saint Claire pour avoir du beau temps les jours de grandes occasions… Je fais la meme chose. Une fois j’ai perdu mon sac dans une boite de nuit. Je faisais pas ma maline. Quand j’y suis retourne le lendemain ils l’avaient retrouve avec tout mon argent, mes papiers et tout. Peut-etre de la chance. Ou pas:)
Je triche jamais et a chaque fois que je promets quelques choses je m’y tiens.
Voila si tu crois un peu aux signes…
Dear Garance, so sorry to hear that! Do not think it means something bad! Just create a FB profile with a pic of a bracelet, I am sure within two weeks you will get it back! S..t happens:( Good luck!!! (My grandma was always praying to St.Anthony;) to help her finding things she lost…
Vraiment très touchant cet article.
Pour ma part j’ai perdu un collier en argent et en perles de corail, hérité de ma grand mère paternelle.
J’essayais des fringues chez h&m, j’ai retiré mon t-shirt et j’ai vu mon collier tomber, je me suis dit “pas grave, je finis d’essayer mon truc et je le récupèrerai après”. Sauf que j’ai oublié de récupérer le collier une fois que j’avais terminé…
C’est terriblement culpabilisant étant donné que c’est vraiment de ma faute à 100% et que je l’avais vu tomber.
J’aurai du le récupérer dès qu’il est tombé.
Evidemment plus une trace du collier une fois que j’ai réalisé mon erreur…
Mais il faut relativiser les choses et se dire que le plus important que nous puissions avoir en notre possession sont les souvenirs :-)
ce qui ferait le plus mal ce n’est pas de perdre l’objet c’est que je sais que pour m’offrir cette bague mon compagnon a pris un crédit sur deux ans….ce sacrifice financier, un diamant pour dire je t’aime, fait que je crois je rachèterai la même bague pour ne pas avoir à lui avouer.
Garance, you poor dear, we all understand. But your sister is right. My darling Dad has lost two wedding rings (yes, two wedding rings!!) since he married my Mum. One of them went over the side of a boat and the other one wore out. This week they have been married for 53 years, and (dare I say it) they still fancy the pants off each other. I’m pretty sure you and Chris will be fine ;-) Anyway, trust the bracelet will find you again, it just wanted you to share all these sweet stories…xx
Oh je compatis tellement, j’ai eu une époque maudite dans ma vie où je perdais absolument TOUT, des portables (classique encore, enfin j’en ai quand même perdu 4 en 3 ans..) aux cartes de bus, en passant par des vêtements, du maquillage, du parfum (!!?? non mais sérieusement, qui perd une bouteille de parfum?? 100ml en plus, affligeant), appareil photo, lecteur mp3 et bien sûr, une pléiade de bijoux. A chaque fois des disparitions plus étranges les unes que les autres, parfois même en présence de tiers qui n’y comprenaient rien non plus, une vraie malédiction, surtout pour moi qui m’attache très très vite aux objets. Lors de vacances avec mes copines il y’a 5 ans, j’ai perdu une bague que mon oncle décédé m’avait offert quand j’étais ado. Énième “oh c’est pas vrai”, drame, envie de me tuer. J’étais sûre de l’avoir perdue dans la voiture mais après avoir retourné toutes les banquettes aucune trace de ma bague. Et puis, il y a quelques mois je tombe sur un vieux sac dans mon placard, pas porté depuis des années. Je l’inspecte distraitement tout en discutant avec ma mère quand au fond d’une des pochettes mes doigts touchent un petit objet froid et dur. La bague en question. Je n’en revenais pas. Comme quoi, tout espoir n’est peut être pas perdu pour ton bracelet, qui sait.. La vie nous joue souvent de drôles de tours!
I’ve lost both a necklace and a ring my mum gave me… the necklace was a little heart she gave me when I was 8 or 9 and I will always remember it… And the ring was one she got with my dad on their first holidays together, this one I never got over it. But in a way loosing things make us cherish even more the memory of the object and above all the meaning it had. So maybe it was a sign after all : a sign that what matters isn’t the object we lost but the person or symbol behind it…
Oh ma pauvre ! Je connais très bien le sentiment, même si mon histoire s’est bien terminée
J’étais en plein déménagement et je squattais dans 2 apparts selon les jours (vis ma vie de nomade). Bref, le déménagement arrive, je déballe les cartons, et la impossible de remettre la main sur MA bague. Je dis bien MA bague, parce qu’elle est unique, elle ne vient pas d’un bijoutier connu ou d’une grande marque, c’est en fait une ancienne boucle d’oreille en or appartenant à ma grand mère qu’elle a fait monter en bague, qu’elle a donné à ma mère, et que ma mère considérant que cette bague m’allait mieux qu’à elle (merci maman de ton regard bienveillant). Bref, la bague chargée en émotion.
Je déballe mes cartons, je pleure, déballe les cartons de mon mec (des fois que…), je pleure, je vais discrètement fouiller les 2 apparts où j’ai squatté, je pleure en sortant. Je me dis que c’est de ma faute, que j’aurais du faire plus attention, et je m’auto flagelle. Et puis parfois, avant de me coucher le soir je repleure un peu.
Et puis quelques semaines après, les glandes lacrymales asséchées, j’ouvre une boite qui dans mes souvenirs ne contenait que de la monnaie et la… ils sont tous la! Ma bague, mais aussi d’autres que j’avais oublié parce que moins importantes (genre une bague fantaisie YSL magnifique, mais moins chargée émotionnellement).
Mais pendant ces quelques semaines, j’étais vraiment au fond du gouffre. On a beau dire que ce ne sont que des choses matérielles, elles nous rattachent à des gens et des émotions !
yes…but sometimes it shows up…but in the future if u can’t put it on at the moment don’t take it….I really hope it shows up…..xx
my niece lost a necklace..made for her with my mom’s diamond …she was very upset……..months later is showed up lying on her bed….a angel gave it back….I hope this happens to u xx
J’ai perdu tous mes bijoux lorsque notre maison a été cambriolée. Quand je dis “tous”, je n’en avais pas tant que ça, mais trois importants: mon alliance, et deux qui m’avaient été offerts par ma belle-famille le jour de notre mariage et auxquels je tenais beaucoup.
Coup dur, surtout qu’en plus de perdre des objets, il faut ranger l’incroyable b****l que les cambrioleurs ont laissé, inventorié, et discutaillé avec les assurances.
Je n’ai pas refait faire mon alliance, je ne la portais pas bop, je n’aime pas trop les bagues, ni les bijoux en général. J’étais triste surtout pour les bijoux de ma belle-famille parce que c’étaient des bijoux anciens, qui ne se font plus et que j’aimais bien porter de temps à autre.
Avec le recul (8 ans), ce ne sont que des objets, et je suis toujours mariée, donc il n’y avait aucun signe à y voir :-).
Par contre, j’ai alors définitivement compris qu’un des lus beaux cadeaux qu’on puisse faire ou recevoir, c’est le temps. Le temps qu’on passe avec un être aimé, proche, nous fera du bien, créera des souvenirs et ne pourra jamais nous être volé.
Belle journée
I lost the ring my husband designed and have done for me when our first son was born.
It was a natural pink rose, with two spirals embracing it. He gave it to me the very same day Enrico came to life.
Well, I lost it in the most stupid way. I lay it on the top of the car to fasten the seat belt to my son, and forgot there.
When I realize what’s happened, I went back and walked for hours along the street, crying all my tears.
A couple of days later my husband told me: “Think about it: you lost it while you were taking care of the “reason” that ring existed”.
It hurts anyway, but I like to think he was damn right.
With love from Italy,
Maura
Dimanche, mon mari a perdu son portable dans un magasin. Un objet assez cher, mais ca ne compte pas pour nous. Par contre, il y avait dedans plein de photos, malheureusement pas encore eregistrees sur dropbox ou autre chose. J’ai pleure pendant deux jours parce que c’etaient les souvenirs des debuts de ma grossesse. Et puis, j’ai compris que ce sont les vrais souvenirs et les vrais sentiments qu’on y attache qui comptent.
Oui, d”habitude je fais très attention aux choses que je porte sur moi.
Mais , il y a eu une fois dans l’avion que allait de Venise à Paris. Je perdu mon iPhone avec des centaines de photos et des vidéo qu j’en aí fais partout à Venise, des moments inoubliables qui ont étés perdu pour la vie.
Il y a 30 ans, j’ai perdu bêtement ma bague de fiançailles. J’y tenais tellement qu’en fait, je l’enlevais chaque fois pour faire la vaiselle, laver mes mains etc…
La dernière fois où je l’ai vue, je l’avais posée sur le rebord du lababo de ma salle de bain, et quand j’ai voulu la remettre, disparue, elle avait du tomber dans la poubelle qui était juste en dessous du lavabo, mais entretemps j’avais vidé la poubelle et sortie les poubelles….
Je n’y ai vu aucune signe, je suis quand même restée en ménage avec lui pendant 20 ans…
My dad gave me a pair of diamond stud earrings that were his mother’s. They were extra-special because he had bought them for her, she wore them nonstop, they were diamonds that I never could afford to buy for myself. I wore them daily for a year. I was taking them off while staying at my brother’s house, when one got tangled in my hair (you unscrew them, and a hair twisted around the post). I decided the earring was worth pulling out a hair, and yanked. Somehow it pinged right out from my fingertips. I heard it rebound off the seat of the plastic chair at the makeup table in front of me, and hit the floor. I was relieved–it didn’t bounce into the sinks on either side of the makeup table. I pulled out the chair and discovered, to my horror, there was an A/C vent in the floor. I know where my earring is–at my brother’s house–but I can’t get it without dismantling his A/C vents. Who knows where it rolled to?
I spent a few hours hysterically tearing apart my home after losing my engagement ring. Then I had to just stop. I couldn’t continue to feel that bad, you know? I had a few moments where I felt very superstitious, how do you not take that as a sign, yadayadayada, and then sense reasserted itself. My marriage is not some poor weak thing that will crumble without some object. If anything, losing it was a sign to put more love and care into the time I spend with my husband. So I stopped looking and worrying about the ring. 6 months later I had a dream that I found the ring. When I woke up and looked, it was exactly where I’d dreamed it was, which was crazy because my husband and I had both checked that spot several times during the frantic search. Don’t beat yourself up anymore about the bracelet, Garance. Let go of those bad feelings and focus on the important ones. :)
Did you use the elevator? maybe it fell down in the gap between the elevator and the door of the elevator!
i once was carrying a load of stuff coming back from a trip… i used my building’s elevator and walked into my house. As i was looking for my passport, that i was carrying in my hands throughout my whole car ride back home, i couldn’t find it! After i searched the house, the car, and every corner of my building i couldnt find it! Then my mum had this super idea that it might have fallen in the trap between the elevator and the door! So i called the building’s concierge and he did his magic and there it was!!
I bought the famous bean pendant necklace from Tiffany’s from my first bonus I ever got after starting to work. One day, I just couldn’t find it anymore and it never turned up. It didn’t have the emotional value as your bracelet, I suppose, but nevertheless, it bugged me to no end that I had lost it. I had been so proud to have been able to buy it (after having coveted it for years!), for me, it stood for what I had achieved. This was many years ago and I could have gone back and bought another one. I didn’t, though, and I won’t. It wouldn’t be the same.
I didn’t lose a bracelet but I lost my cell phone recently and I, too, do not lose things. The cell phone was a gift from my father, which made it all the more special. I was heartbroken over the loss. But time heals all wounds … even the lost ones.
There are four things that I always wear: my grandfather’s watch, my wedding ring, the ring my mum and my grandfather gave me for my 30’s birthday, and a necklace with three charms, a charm my mum gave me, a charm my grandfather gave me and a charm my grandmother gave me. I always always always wear them. Well, not to the gym but since I hardly go to the gym, let’s stickt to I always wear them. I think that if I’d loose them I’ll die inside a little bit. I live very far from my mother and my grandparents are dead so that’s the way I carry them with me everyday. When I’m scared I grab my necklace with the three charms. When I don’t feel the watch around my wrist I panic. And when I feel bad I look at my rings and I know I’m very much loved.
I’m so very afraid of loosing those things that I think about it a lot. And I always end up remembering my grandmother smiling, my grandfather hugging me, my mother telling me to loose weight (that’s her way of showing affection) and my wife’s bright happy eyes. I guess I’ll survive if I don’t have my rings, my watch and my necklace. But for now, I treasure them like I treausre my family.
I hope you are feeling better now and I know that wherever that bracelet is, it will be missing your wrist!
xx,
E.
http://www.theslowpace.com
Un autre moyen de lutter contre la tristesse de perdre un objet cher, c’est de faire son deuil d’abord, puis de volontairement transférer ou reconstruire le souvenir heureux sur un autre objet.
Par exemple Chris peut te racheter un autre bijou et faire du moment de te l’offrir à un moment encore plus spécial, pour réinvestir de nouveaux beaux souvenirs dedans. Ou tu peux te souvenir de la fête de tes 40 ans en imprimant une photo de l’occasion et en l’affichant. Ou tu peux chérir une photo où on voit bien le bracelet. Ou tu peux toi offrir un bijou encore mieux à ton amoureux. Ou tu peux te faire un tatouage haha …
L’idée est de se demander ce que symbolisait exactement cet objet, et de trouver un autre objet qui, avec le temps, pourra porter le même symbole, voire plus.
Ce que je ferais à ta place, c’est que j’achèterais (ou me ferais offrir wink wink) un autre bracelet, en faisant graver à l’intérieur une phrase ou un mot qui ferait allusion à ce fameux texto. Du coup ça te rappellera à la fois l’ancien bracelet et tous ses souvenirs, la douleur de la perte, puis la beauté éclatante de la déclaration d’un amour qui la dépasse largement, qui vaut tellement plus qu’un bracelet ! Et hop dans ta tête la perte se transforme en addition et non soustraction, c’est magique !
Garance, bravo! Bravo to you that took the courage to write about this. I totally understand you and had experiences like that in the past. At the time it sucks, and if you remember it after a while your heart jumps a little, but it will be ok in time!
J’ai perdu beaucoup de petites choses qui me raccrochent aux autres l’été passé car les cambrioleurs les ont emportées…
Bijoux de valeur sentimentale: je vis à l’étranger et chaque bracelet, collier, bague et paire de boucle d’oreille offerts par ma mère, mes soeurs ou mes amies ont pris une signification encore plus importante car ils me font fortement penser à toutes ces merveilleuses femmes de ma vie!
Tu ajoutes à cela mon ordinateur et mon disque dur externe et ainsi toutes les photographies des 6 dernières années….
Je pensais que je n’allais jamais m’en remettre, et puis en fait je crois que j’ai inconsciemment mis ça de côté sans jamais affronter la question (parce qu’objectivement, c’est dramatique!!), je ne peux rien y faire et mon amoureux et mes amis m’ont aidé à me reconstruire de nouveaux petits souvenirs, et puis j’ai épuré ma collection de bijoux ;)
I once thought I’d lost the necklace my mother had custom made for my 18th birthday. Then, years later, I found it in the strangest place: on the “rim” of a drawer, basically between the drawer and the shelve. But I remember that I felt exactly how you described here… And even if it came back, I learnt that it didn’t mean as much to lose it.
J’adore les bijoux ! Mais il doit y avoir une malédiction dans la famille.
Petite j’ai perdu ma chaine avec ma médaille que j’avais eu à ma naissance et que je portais tous les jours. Plus tard j’ai perdu ma gourmette de naissance que, là encore, je ne quittais jamais… A l’époque je ne m’en suis pas vraiment rendu compte mais quand j’y repense aujourd’hui cela me rend triste. J’aurai du les chercher d’avantage !
Ensuite ma mère a eu la bonne idée de cacher un jour ses bijoux dans la poubelle avant de partir en vacances. Mais elle ne l’a dit à personne si bien qu’en rentrant mon père à vider les ordures… Adieu les jolis bijoux, héritages familiaux pour la plupart.
Et pour finir ceux de ma grand-mère (qui en possédais un très gros coffret bien garni) sont en quelques sortes retenus en otage suite à un divorce compliqué. On ne les a jamais revu depuis sa séparation (13 ans). Ils ont peut être même été vendu depuis ! On ne sait même pas. Je ne perd pas l’espoir qu’un jour ils lui soient rendu…
Avis aux cambrioleurs : inutile de vous attarder chez nous.
I live in South Africa where you can and will quite regularly be seperated from your meaningful posessions. Yes, it can be very upsetting but on the bright side it teaches you that the only truly valuable “thing” you posess is your life.
I think we all could relate. I honestly thought that I’m not the type to lose things, but just months ago, I lost a pair of my aviators. Yes, they’re just aviators, but I bought them in one my trips abroad, so it holds a sentimental value. Then after which I lost a favorite scarf, which was given to me. I guess, it’s telling me something, not to get too attached.
I also have a difficult time letting go of stuff, like an old watch that my father gave me at 5th grade. It’s no longer working, and it doesn’t look too nice, but I still keep it. The things we treasure.
I lost my CBTL card that my father gave me during my first year of college.
I cried for hours.
oh no, I completely understand how you must have felt. I lost a gold diamond ring my mother gave me when I was little–she wanted to be the one to give me my “first diamond”. It had an adjustable band so that when I grew up I could bring in to the jeweller to expand it. My mother kept it for safe keeping when I was young until I went off to college. I did not bother to have the band adjusted and just wore it as a pinky ring for good luck. Alas, I lost it at my friend’s apartment few nights after graduation, right before I was flying back home. I took it off because I didn’t want to lose it doing the dishes…I felt dizzy and am pretty sure I turned pale. We looked for it everywhere in the house and my friend kept looking after I had to leave. It never turned up. My mom consoled me saying someone would give me my “second diamond” and that one would stay put forever. Well, my hubby did, but I still haven’t gotten over losing that beautiful gold ring.
I thoughts recently Ive lost my wedding ring. I had an early start and was half asleep when I left the house. I kept worrying about it all day. I’ve never left the house without my wedding ring yet. Turns out I left it on the bathroom sink at home. I was very happy, even though I have beautiful jewellery, this simple thin band means a world to me. I would have been devastated had I lost it…
Ana
http://www.champagnegirlsabouttown.co.ul
Losing things drives me crazy, i am not very spiritual but I have prayed to St Anthony with some success.
Any idea why it is that specific saint?
J’étais en voyage à Istanbul quand j’ai perdu un foulard qui appartenait à ma grand-mère, partie quelques mois plus tôt. J’étais effondrée, je ne pouvais plus m’arrêter de pleurer. Des passants ont tellement eu pitié de moi qu’ils ont bien voulu m’aider à le chercher… et on l’a retrouvé !
Peut-être que tu retrouveras aussi ton bracelet :)
I lost a bracelet a good friend had gave me for my 21st Birthday, a gorgeous gold bracelet from my oldest childhood friend. I moved house about 3 times in a year and I think it must have gotten lost in the chaos. To this day it angers me that I don’t know when/how I lost it, if ever I’m having a proper clean I keep an eye open for it. I’m not at all spiritual, I wish I was because it still really p***** me off that I lost something so special. I’ve not mentioned to her that I lost it, even though it wasn’t at all an expensive item, I just feel so guilty about it!
I’m like you, I see signs in everything. Once I found an old gold piece at a market with my brother’s initials, it had been attached to an old box, or something. I took it to a great antique jeweller who made it into a charm and put it on a gold bracelet I also found, luckily, at a market. I gave it to his fiance before their wedding. She took it to a jeweller to make it smaller, and BY MISTAKE… HE MELTED THE WHOLE THING DOWN!! Devastation. What was the purpose of that? It makes no sense at all. It was so beautiful. The gesture was beautiful. The outcome was totally clumsy!
On a été cambriolés un jour et on m’a volé tous mes bijoux…Mais maintenant si je perdais ma bague Repossi que je me suis achetée avec mon premier argent j’en serais malade.
Oui…Et c’est douloureux!
Mais il m’est arrivé de perdre pas mal de choses – dont mon iphone qui a glissé de mon sac dans une rue de Paris et une ceinture adorée à Madrid…et à chaque fois j’ai demandé au destin retrouver ces objets…Et mon iphone est réapparu dans un bar de Paris qui m’a contacté par email pour que je vienne le récupérer – et ma ceinture elle est réapparu dans la loge du concierge…ça marche pas à tous les coups, mais je dois dire que parfois je retrouve des choses perdues qu’il assez improbable de retrouver…Cela dit quand quelque chose se volatilise vraiment – sans qu’il y ait la moindre piste sur le pourquoi du comment, selon mon expérience c’est souvent un vol dont il s’agit.
Cela dit Garance, parfois perdre un objet c’est simplement se défaire de lui…se défaire des objets c’est aussi s’alléger dans la vie. ça permet de se concentrer sur l’essentiel…l’amour, les êtres chers… Le reste même si c’est pénible ce n’est que de la pacotille de valeur ;)
Salut Garance! Je suis desolee pour la perte de ton bracelet…
Il y a 10 ans j’ai perdu la bague que ma grand mere m’avait donne, sa premiere bague offerte par son pere pour aller au bal lorsqu’elle avait 18 ans. j’ai fait un geste brusque dans ma voiture, la bague a vole et je n’ai pas pu la retrouver.. J’en etais malade. Puis, nous avons vendu la voiture.. Et il y a 5 ans, le ‘nouveau’ proprietaire de la voiture m’a contacte en me disant avoir retrouve ma bague.. Un vrai miracle! Je pense comme toi que la vie est faite de signes ;-)
J’ai offert à mon amoureuse un collier pour la Ste Valentin. Avec un arbre. Tout un symbole car notre premier rendez-vous fut une balade dans la forêt. Là, elle vient de me dire qu’elle l’a perdu:-( Froidement. Par sms. Ensuite elle m’appelle. Moi, en pleurs. Lui parlant de la symbolique. Elle, disant qu’elle se doutait que j’allais dire ça. Début de dispute. Après, elle m’écrit qu’elle se protège de sa culpabilité en restant détachée… Moi, j’ai juste l’impression qu’elle s’en fiche.
Oh comme je comprends ta tristesse … On m’a volé ma bague de fiançailles , une émeraude, bague de famille d’une grande valeur et sentimentale et financière. Ce soir la, je l ai laissée chez nous, mal m’en a pris, des cambrioleurs nous ont tout volé, mon mari était fou et moi inconsolable… A présent je privilégie les voyages aux bijoux comme cadeaux de valeur, personne ne me volera mes souvenirs de moments inoubliables en famille….et je n’y ai vu aucun signe, nous venons de fêter nos 10 ans de mariage et avons 2 enfants, une maison en banlieue et le break (mais pas de chien)!
Bises
I lost my grandmother engagement ring but I found after four years to a woman’s finger. I told her it was my and it returned to me. do not despair if it was found by an honest person the bracelet return to you :)
Oh yes, I lost a gold watch my parents gave me as a present for my 18th birthday. It was symbolic, my mom got it from my dad and then me, well not for long. I felt really terrible. I know what you feel. The worst feeling is the helplessness. ..
http://lifestylebyola.blogspot.com/
I remember these few items a five dollar bill my grandmother gave me as a child. That was so much then and I still wonder where it could have gone. A cream light weight cardigan that I adored my husband left at the hospital and a few jewelry items but your post made me realize its ok and happens to everyone. Losing my Dad sort of showed me nothing I will ever own will cause that kind of heart ache. Unlike your sister I believe in signs and they have been mounting up lately, if I pay attention to whatever subtle hint its giving I seem to be making all the right turns.
Im sorry about your bracelet and I hope it crosses your path to become yours again but if the universe has taken it see what it means…..
I am so sorry! I completely understand how you feel. I lost a bracelet my Mother gave me this past winter. I was wearing it into the movie theatre and left without it. I re-traced all of my steps and searched the theatre with no success. How I loved that bracelet. The only comfort I had was knowing my Mom would be happy to know I was wearing it and enjoyed it so. I do hope whoever found it enjoys it as much as I had.
Hugs to you…
Une très belle bague que m’avait offert mon mari pour mon anniversaire. Je l’avais au doigt le matin et le soir plus rien. Je ne m’en étais même pas rendu compte. J’ai retourné toute la maison. Et rien. Je me suis demandé aussi si ça avait un sens. Et puis je me suis dit que c’était la vie. C’est comme ça.
C’est très intéressant ce que tu as écrit. Je pense que même en étant minimaliste et en évitant de s’attacher aux objets, nous avons forcément quelque chose auxquels nous tenons.
Bel article. Merci d’avoir partager ces moments avec nous!
Ah, I can definitely relate! I am very attached to certain pieces as well and it has happened that I (thought I) lost something several times. The last one was a white gold ring my mom had given to me – she got it from her parents when she was young and I got to wear it a few years ago. I wore it every day until one day I lost it while sitting on the bus. I was so sad! Other times were worse, with more valuable (sentimental) pieces I thought I lost, but luckily they turned up again. Pfew!
I do believe things happen for a reason, but not when it comes to losing precious things. That just sucks.
You are adorable Garancé, if i was gay i would be madly platonically in love with u :)
I do love my “things” , the ones that hold a meaning with it, either because i worked really hard to buy them or because someone really special gave it to me, and i guess we all, at some point in our lives do lose something and cry about it, i sure did…but just don’t remember what it was :) The thing is, i don’t always believe everything happens for a reason, cause some people just have miserable lives , what’s the reason in that… i don’t know , maybe someone does.
With love
Andreia (Portugal)
I know this feeling and it’s pretty terrible. When I was 20 my mom gave me a bracelet that my dad had given to her (at about my age at the time) . I never met my dad – he died before I was born so needless to say it was a big deal for me that she gave it to me. I put it on and never took it off. Then one night laying in bed, I look down at my arm and the bracelet is gone. I felt sick. I never found it and I get emotional every time I think about it. I also can’t bring myself to tell my mom.
I hope your’s makes it way back to you.
Ooh.. Yehh.. I look like on you.. I always regret about each lose thing which has meaning for me. I also think how this thing was important for me. Several years ago I lose special ring in London in famous Maison tea shop. It was simple but splendid ring with long life story. It was my closest friend’s gift. I also thing about my safiety when I wore it. But in Russian people tell : when you more lost then you are sure to find big happy thing))
Hello Garance, je suis vraiment désolée pour ton bracelet. Moi aussi j’ai perdu le bracelet Tiffany que m’avait offert mon amoureux pour nos un an et le pire c’est que je sais exactement où je l’ai perdu…. chez Zara en faisant les soldes cet été !
J’ai retourné la boutique pour le retrouver mais une nana a dû y mettre la main dessus avant moi (et Tiffany quand même!) :-(
Moi aussi je crois aux signes du destin, surtout qu’il s’agissait du cadeau de nos un an donc tout un symbole. Mais mon copain m’a rassuré en me disant que c’est pas grave, que c’est des choses qui arrivent et que le plus important c’est que notre amour soit toujours là.
A un moment j’ai pensé à aller me racheter le même mais je suis pas sure que ça soit une bonne idée car le plus important dans un cadeau c’est la personne qui nous l’offre et l’intention qu’elle y met.
I just recently misplaced a promise ring and I spent the last couple of days looking in trash cans, under leaves in parking lots, etc. I am still hopeful that I will find my topaz diamond promise ring. Only had it 2 weeks :( it was too big and I needed to resize it. I am hoping it is in my apartment. I am traveling and haven’t been able to really look like I want to.
I did.. I was going to my cousin’s wedding, so I was getting my hair and nails fixed, and somehow my earrings that were made out my grandparents wedding rings (a present my mother gave me , as a reminder of my grandparents that passed away) disappeared at the hair salon, I still don’t if it was robbed or just lost. I cried so much.. I still do time to time because I know is something I can never replace. Other jellewery dissapeared too but those earrings were, for me, the representation of my grandparents :(
I’m not so attached to material things. The worst thing in life is loosing someone you dearly love… And it’s unfortunately happening to me at the moment.
Yes girl yes! It hurt my heart when I accidentally threw the diamond earrings my mother gave me in the trash while on vacation because I had foolishly wrapped them in a tissue.
Also, the emerald (her birthstone) ring she gave me when I arrived at the beach–different trip–and ran straight into the surf and a wave took it off my finger.
The beautiful custom diamond pinkie ring that my ex gave me that went down the drain at beauty school.
The moral of the story, though, is that wow…I am loved! These people thought to gift me with precious things as symbols of their love for me and as cheesy as it sounds, that love will never be lost.
Quand j’ai eu mon bac ma mère m’a offert une bague. A mes yeux, la perfection : rubis, or blanc et diamants. Ce fut un véritable coup de foudre. Elle était toujours autour de mon doigt. Un jour je l’ai posé dans un tiroir pour aller à la salle de sport. En retrant, impossible de la retrouver. J’ai cherché partout, j’ai refait mon chemin… j’en ai même rêvé. J’avais perdu le souvenir de mon passage de l’adolescence à l’âge adulte.