- Natalie Williams
The Silver Lining Of Having My Bag Stolen
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”—Maya Angelou
I bet that if your bag got stolen you would never think that you would get everything back? Well neither did I and I’m also one of those naive people who thought “It’ll never happen to me” so when I had my bag stolen on Monday it was a complete shock and I started preparing for the worst.
Now I did not want this to be a sympathy post as what happened after this made the entire experience worth it and that’s why I decided to share.
The first incredible thing that happened was my neighbour alerting me that my bag got stolen as I was none the wiser. He was walking his dogs when he saw what happened and instinctively wrote down all of the car details for me to provide to the police and left me his number in case I needed anything else. This was my first interaction with my neighbour and although it was an unfortunate way to first meet I am so grateful that we did.
The same day after I had finished work my manager sent me a number to call of a person who was trying to contact me in work. I assumed it was probably the police station giving me an update, but it turned out that it was a lady whose son had found my purse on the way to school and held onto it until he got home that day. The kind lady dropped my purse to me which had everything still inside it, even my bank cards and I.D. I was so relieved as my biggest concern was being a victim of identity theft so having my purse back was a HUGE relief.
It was the next day that blew me away. I received another call from a random number and this time it was a lady who had found my bag and saw my number written in my diary so called to let me know she would hold onto it until I could collect it. I went straight to her house after work and honestly expected that nothing else would be in it but miraculously every single thing that was in my bag when it got stolen was still there.
I’ll never understand why the person who stole my bag did but if I’m totally honest, I don’t care. This 1 person taught me that for the bad choice he made I met 3 good, honest, kind people who refused to take any sort of reward for what they had done and were just happy that they were able to help.
I also learnt that I have taken control of my anxiety more than I ever thought I could. Yes I did have some panic-struck moments when I kept remembering what belongings were in my bag but I didn’t hibernate in bed and dwell on what had happened for the rest of the day like I would have a few years ago.
My last thoughts are about karma. It could be pure luck that all my belongings came back to me but I like to think it’s a sign from the universe, almost a pat on the back that the good I have done for others doesn’t go unrecognised and a reminder that the choices I make have a consequence, whether it be good or bad. I feel more inspired than ever to keep giving the universe the best of myself because even if I don’t see the good come back to me I know that I at least would have made a difference and that’s all that matters.
Thanks for reading xo