When You Feel Lost

We are all feeling a little worried and sad over here because my sister’s pooch jumped out of her car the other night, ran across a busy intersection and hasn’t been seen since. We have shared it all over the place on Facebook. My sister and her family put up flyers in the area where this happened. They talked to people. They’ve contacted animal control. No dice so far. And so we try to think of more things to try, and we wait, and we hope.

My daughter asked me what happens if they don’t find sweet little Rey. I explained that the best case (the one I’d like to imagine) is that someone else found her who fell in love with her right away and decided to take care of her forever. I’ve tried holding very positive outcomes in my mind, just in case that makes a difference. I picture little Rey being taken to Animal Control (who knows she is missing). I picture someone reading her tag and calling my sister. I picture her arriving home safe if a little scared. I picture them together.

I picture other things too, though, when I don’t work at it. I picture her lost and scared. I picture her hiding from the very busy and loud part of town where she decided to have an adventure. I picture her being uncertain of what to do because she is young. And when I picture these things, I consciously will her to come out of hiding, to seek help, to use those amazing puppy eyes to get some help from a kindhearted human.

And in that moment of wishing the best for her, I can’t help but think of how we all feel when we are lost. We think we are totally alone. We’ve maybe made a decision that turned out to be pretty terrible in retrospect. We’ve taken a risk that didn’t pan out and now we’re adrift in unfamiliar territory. We feel the loss of what we thought would happen. We feel regret or remorse. We may tell ourselves we’re incompetent or foolish. We hide. We quiet our fear and loneliness any way we can find. We tell people we’re fine but so busy we can’t see them right now. And maybe we even want to reach out and make a change or ask for help, but we’re not sure who to trust or what to do.

If that’s you, if you’re feeling a little adrift, know that I am picturing you right now. I am surrounding you with love and compassion. I am consciously willing you to come out of hiding, to seek help, to find your kindhearted human friends, to know that being lost is temporary and that the way home is always inside of you. The things you learn while you are lost can all be taken home with you, made part of you, in the safety of your heart. I’m here if you need me.