Lost and Found

By Stella Orange | Comments Off on Lost and Found

I’m not very good at keeping track of objects.

Part of this is because I’ve moved a lot in my life (maybe 20 times? I’ve lost count).

Part of this is because I’m often daydreaming and talking to trees.

But because of my tendency to lose things – keys, pants, notebooks, phones, wallets, chapstick, water bottles, earbuds – I’ve come up with systems to know where my stuff is.

So now, our house is outfitted with a series of bowls, hooks, and caches of Frequently Used Objects.

My travel backpack is an exquisitely and methodically assembled ‘go bag’ with everything I need.

Also? I am a tyrant about returning Things to their Homes.

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Part of tyrannical fervor comes from my mama.

When my brother and I were kids, she had a ballpoint pen.

We’d ask to use it.

As she’d unzip the zipper of her purse to retrieve it, she would recite the ‘I Am Giving You My Pen And I Will Be Making Sure You Return It’ ceremonial recitation.

Back then, I found this a bit much.

But now?

I see the wisdom of her Return-This-To-Its-Home ways.

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Notice: my story about losing things is also a story about finding ways not to lose things as much. (And a story about how wise my mom is.)

See how that works?

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In the hero’s story, asking oneself ‘what have I lost?’ is a call to adventure.

Most people avoid asking themselves questions like this.

Most people want to stay on their ‘couch of comfort’.

Most people don’t want to go on adventures.

But the hero who hears the call and crosses the threshold into the Unknown is guaranteed to find something that people who stay on their couches never will.

In the hero’s story, we call this the Elixir.

The Reward.

The Prize.

You could also say that it’s what you find, after you lose something.

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What if everything you’ve lost contains a little diamond in it?

That’s what we’ll be chewing on in this session of Writing Your Way Home.

And talking about.

And tucking in our back pockets as we move through the months ahead.

Who knows what each of our heroes will discover?

I certainly don’t!

But can’t wait to find out.

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

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