Message from my Missing Earring

What are my earrings missing their pair still doing in my jewelry purse? Do you have them in your purse too or is there a special coach for hoarders like me? So, I have lone earrings that will never again find their pair sitting in my purse. One is from my days in Plateau NYSC camp, another is from my wedding. And others from different places with different interesting stories. I keep them, not because they were cast in precious stones. Some of them can hardly buy me lunch but oh, the memories and the lessons.

I am feeling particularly Zen today, you know how we all suddenly go owlish at times? I start to listen to what these earrings and the loss they embody have to say about life and relationships. There is the loss I see coming but live in constant denial of. With that earring, I am the fellow who keeps asking: Are you still there? Do you love me? Will you stay? I keep checking for reassurance. Walk a little, put my hands to my lobe. One day in the market, I put my hand to my ear and yes, it was gone. Somehow, you would say I knew the story was bound to end that way but the part of me that loved and stubbornly wore a earring with the eccentric clasp did not know that.

There is that earring that vanishes without warning. It just disappears one day. You never see it coming. Like my friend’s relationship of five years. We all thought it was the perfect thing. It was the kind of relationship that made you feel all gooey inside. It ended. No one saw it coming, she did not see it coming either.

So my lone pair of earrings sit in my purse and tell me stories of how happy we were together. Of memories and times. If I would be honest with myself, I know it probably never was that perfect. I could as well throw away the other pair. I know there is no way some of these earrings will come back. It is like phone numbers of people on my phone, people I haven’t reached out to in years. People who probably still have my number too but have not had cause to call me in centuries and probably would not. It is the application for learning French on my phone. I was all fired up for some weeks till activities rushed in. But no, I did not delete the application. It is just our way. Leaving a door open while sitting in another room. Grimly determined that should the other pair of earring ever drops like a miracle someday, I have its sister here, waiting. One day, I might complete my French lessons, I might pick my phone and surprise somebody or be surprised.

And then, like fairy tale endings intruding beautifully upon real life, sometimes, the unexpected happens. A lone earring meets another lone earring, squints at it and discovers they are sisters: Is it you? It asks and a beautiful love story begins. Don’t worry. I am not that sentimental to make this up. I truly heard of two people discovering they had the sister pairs. One lady gave hers to the other and they lived happily ever after.

Am I talking about just lone earrings? No, it is never just about it. It is a lot more. Like every jewelry piece, even a lone earring tells a story and has lessons to teach. And even if there is no lone earring hanging out in your purse waiting for its twin, I know you have lone earrings in your heart.

Tip: Talking about literal earrings, there is the option of converting that lone earring to a pendant. You could even go Emma Watson and rock your lone earring. There is another lesson there, you know.