Comes in Threes

               I’ve often heard that bad things come in threes. This may be an allusion to the three-on-a-match superstition.  That superstition arose during the Crimean War, when soldiers were told not to share a match when lighting cigarettes.   Doing so gave the enemy sniper time to spot that light, aim his rifle, and fire, killing the third soldier. Ever since, we’ve been told “bad things come in threes.”     

               But good things come in threes, too, for example, the Holy Trinity. Okay, that’s pretty much the only example needed.  But I have another.

               It all started a year ago.  My husband and I were in South Carolina for a wedding the week before Christmas.  I took my holiday jewelry box and also wore a gold bracelet I never took off.  It was a gift from my husband several years prior and very precious. 

               While there, I snagged the bracelet on a door jamb and split one of the chain links.  I put it aside to bring home and have repaired.

               Once home, we entered into the holiday season with gusto and I didn’t think about the bracelet until late January.  I went to my jewelry box to take it to the store for repair and it wasn’t there.  I ransacked my luggage, small nooks and crannies in bathrooms, and my dresser, but didn’t find it.  I assumed I had left it at the hotel.

               Fast forward to November.  My friend lost a gold ring at the store where we both volunteer.  She looked for it but couldn’t find it.  Several weeks after she told me about it, we were working together one evening and I went to the large trash can to remove the bag.  When I moved the can, I spotted a gold ring under the trash can.

               She was, of course, delighted and stunned to have her ring returned.  It made me think of my bracelet and once again, feel very sad that I had lost it.

               Thanksgiving over, I got out my Christmas jewelry box to begin to wear my festive earrings, pins, and necklaces.  It’s not a large box, mostly earrings, and I was poking around in it to find the matching evergreen tree earring when I spotted a little chain.  Pulling it out – it was my gold bracelet!

               My very first stop the next morning was to the jewelry store to have it repaired.  Of course, I had put it in the holiday box, I just didn’t remember it when I put the box away for eleven months.

               On my way home from the jewelry store, I picked up our grandson at the babysitter.  He was delighted to see me wearing the Christmas tree earrings he had given me last year. 

We took him home, played a bit, and I noticed one earring was missing. We scoured his house, porch and the car and turned out pockets, but the earring was gone.

               The next day, our grandson proudly handed me the missing earring.  It had been found on the babysitter’s porch and they suspected it was mine.

               Lost – then found – jewelry.  Good things do come in threes, it seems, and this is certainly the season for it!  Merry Christmas, everyone!