Dear Human,

I’ll start this off by saying that it’s going to be OKAY. I know the initial panic can be rather strong, an all-encompassing emotion that pulls you under waves of anxiety. Where is it? The question pings off the walls of your brain like so many notifications lighting up your phone these days. Despite all this worry, it will be okay.

How can I know this? Simple. Nearly everything you lose turns up again. Sometimes it turns up the same day, a mere matter of minutes after the initial disappearance. Other times, it takes a few hours, or days, or even months, to show up. Either way, give anything time, and time will help you out.

The other day, I decided to lace up my running shoes and go for a run. It had been too long since my last one, so I decided to take this outing at an easy pace. Three miles can’t be that bad, right? Although the start was a little rough, it wasn’t long before my body warmed up to the concept once again. I realized that I had lost this little piece of myself by forgoing it for other workouts.

During the run, it dawned on me that when you lose something, you lose some of yourself. Some losses are bigger than others; wallets are an important part of you, so losing yours can be a big deal. Other things, like your glasses or those running shoes that were buried in the closet, aren’t quite as big but they still hold a piece of your essence.

When you find that missing item, you’ll be excited. Not only do you realize you’ve missed the object, but it hits you that you weren’t fully complete without it.

There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes you lose things that just aren’t meant to turn up again. In those cases, it seems to indicate that you just don’t need it anymore. Even if all you really want is to find it again. Saying “it is what it is,” seems a lame excuse in this case, but the reality is that some lemons just can’t be made into lemonade.

This might be a lot of unnecessary info on an item you’ve lost or just recently misplaced. After all, isn’t a lost thing just a lost thing? Yes for some of you, absolutely not for others. Either way you flip the coin, something is missing. If and when it turns up for you, your panic will disappear faster than a fish returned to the water after being caught. And all the problems you had won’t be quite as bad, because you’ll have found something you were missing.

Be it a pair of glasses or finding your stride on a run, finding what was lost makes losing it worth the while.