The Pink Sweater

Sunday I went grocery shopping and put my pink sweater in the cart. I never put my purse in the cart, ever. It is always on my shoulder or arm. But I will put my sweater or coat or hoodie in the cart. About a third of the way through my shopping, I used the restroom and left the cart outside. I knew the sweater was in it, but I wasn't concerned. When I came back, my cart was gone, and along with it, my pink sweater. I thought at first that perhaps I left my cart elsewhere, so I retraced my steps. The cart, and with it, the sweater, were gone. I checked with lost and found and they didn't have it.

The next day, I checked with lost and found. No pink sweater. And the next day. No pink sweater. Now this sweater, an inexpensive cardigan, was several years old, and too big for me anymore anyway. Not a great loss. I was more puzzled about how I "lost" my shopping cart than I was concerned about the pink sweater. I am not absent minded and I don't usually lose things. I always know where my car keys and cell phone are, and I pay my bills well before the due date. I'm an organized sort of girl.

Now I knew that I would get another pink sweater. I just didn't know how and I didn't know when. When I told a friend the story, she told me the universe would give me a new sweater. Yesterday on my lunch break I visited a thrift store that is in the same shopping center as my store. I found a pink cotton sweater set, a cardigan with a matching sleeveless top, on the rack. It was $7 for the sweater set, and it still had tags on from the department store where it had been purchased. I guess someone bought it and never wore it, and it was donated to the thrift store, which benefits a hospice in my area. It is really beautiful; more beautiful than the pink sweater I lost. And very, very expensive, judging from the original tag on it. Now expensive doesn't always mean better quality, but with clothes sometimes it does. Even if I was much more prosperous financially, even if I won the lottery, I cannot imagine ever buying a sweater set that cost $189. That is just outrageously outrageous. But that is what I have, hanging to dry even as we speak. (I always wash new clothes before I wear them. Is that too much information for you?) I plan to wear it tomorrow.

I love clothes. Love, love, love to wear pretty things. Now I guess I'm not unlike a lot of women in that way, but it really makes me feel wonderful to have beautiful things to wear. Since I live on a very tight budget, I could deprive myself for the sake of being frugal. I could tell myself that I don't need them. That I can get by. That I can make do. But if you've been reading for a while, you already know the stories I've shared with you of all the beautiful clothes that have been coming my way, many of them free and the others very inexpensive.

My old pink sweater was very pretty. But it is nothing compared to my new pink sweater; and this new one even has a matching top. And I never would have bought the new one if my old one had not been lost. So it's almost like I had to have that happen so I could have something even more wonderful.

You are probably ahead of me by now, but I'll go ahead and say it. I am now wondering if there are some old things I need to "lose," perhaps some things I need to let go of, so some even more wonderful things can come into my life.

Susan