I’ve only heard of it happening.     .     .

Has it ever happened to you.    .     .     ?

Losing your Parking Garage Ticket

I had it in my pocket,

I thought for all day

and I thought wrong.      .      .

When I got to the attendant

I already knew that I would have to be

T H E       A L L       D A Y       F E E

Uhhhhhh.     .     .I was wrong about that, too.       .       .

The sign read in

extremely bold numerals

$ 6  0 . 0  0  FOR  THE  LOSS  OF  TICKET

I pled my case to the young girl parking attendant.    .    .

A c t u a l l y.       .       .

I thought my argument was very convincing,

telling her that I had just finished presenting

at a Conference at the Hyatt Regency.     .     .

for good measure,

I even showed her my fancy, super-shiny

name tag that boldly showed my name

and the even more prominent

S            P            E            A            K            E            R

label under my name.   .   .

She asked me what time I arrived

and when I told her

she got on her walkie-talkie to

T  H  E       M  A  N  A   G   E   R

told him, quite eloquently my plight and without hesitation he responded:

“Uhhhhh, yeah, he’s going to have to pay the Sixty-dollar fee without a ticket.   .   .I’d have him go back in and hunt for it again.”

She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders,

moved the cars behind me out of the way to another line

(They really thought that was a great idea)

and I went back in to the Hotel/Conference Center

to search every place I had been that day.   .   .

including the Starbucks literally right outside of the door of the room I conducted my presentation

.       .       .n  o      l  u   c   k

.       .       .back to my car, up the ramp to the attendant.     .     .

“Ma’am, I’m sorry.  .  .I looked everywhere and I can’t find it.     .     .It’s not your fault, it’s mine, and I’ll have to pay the fine.”

And I was reaching for my credit card and extending it towards her

I   T      H  A  P  P  E  N  E  D

Her hand went over top of mine as I extended the card to her and she held it.    .    .

she held my hand until I looked up

I saw her eyes–wet–

“Sir, I am so sorry,  I hate this.  I know you are a good man.  I know you’re not lying.  I know you didn’t lose this ticket on purpose and I really like your tie.”

T H E R E      I T      W A S :

WHAT     I     LOST

wasn’t  as valuable as

WHAT     I     FOUND:

Pure

unadulterated 

sincere

Compassion

We do, don’t we.     .     .     ?

We so very often fail to

Notice what we Recognize.     .     .

Uhhhhhhh,  NO!

Not today

Not now

Not this Blog-post

Recognize–won’t you.     .     .

Notice–will you.          .          .

When you have  L O S T

You’ve   F O U N D

Found  what?

S o m e t h i n g

.        .        .something sometimes more awesome than what we’ve lost.     .     .

but we won’t stop

focusing

recognizing

noticing

on what we’ve lost

so much that it’s literally impossible to

focus

recognize

notice

what’s   f o u n d

So can you.     .     .     ?

Can you

recognize or notice

what was found after what was lost.     .     .     ?

A new relationship

A new job

A new challenge

A new goal

A new fortune

A new journey

A new beginning

A new door

A  Newness  you’ve never

envisioned

known

experienced

s  h  a  r  e  d ?

The next time you go to the

L   O   S   T        A  N  D       F  O  U  N  D

don’t look for what’s been

L          O          S          T

search

for  what’s  to  be  found

and don’t fail

to notice or recognize it.       .       .

or    share    it