How Losing My Wallet Reminded Me of Life's True Wealth

“Everything happens for a reason. I wasn't overly stressed. It was more of a minor inconvenience."
Experiencing Love Ep 137

Hello and welcome to Experiencing Love. I'm your host, Philip Joks, and I'm so glad that you're here. Today, I have to start off with a big shoutout. I need to give a shoutout to two incredible people who saved me so much time, stress, frustration. Their names are Dani and Valeria.

I visited my sister today for a lovely belated birthday dinner. It was me, her, my nephew, and my younger brother. It ended up being a wonderful day with a fun twist in the middle where, right outside her house, I happened to lose my wallet. It turns out I dropped my wallet as I was trying to stick it in one of my pockets and didn't notice. When we were about to leave from her house to go visit a local farmer's market, I noticed it was gone. This was about 10 minutes after I got there.

I immediately went searching around the house, and I couldn't find it. I looked in my car; it wasn't there. And I looked right outside the house, and it was nowhere to be seen. I did a second run-through, then a third, then a fourth, and not being able to find it anywhere really made me worry. And it wasn't a deep type of worry because one thing that really helped was repeating, "Everything happens for a reason." I wasn't overly stressed. It was more of a minor inconvenience. I wasn't worried about the credit cards or anything else like that. The main thing I was worried about was not having my ID and figuring out a way to get home. My sister lives an hour away from where I do, and the idea of driving without an ID is not something I want to do. I don't worry about getting pulled over, but if the worst-case scenario happens, I'd like to be prepared.

So that's where a little bit of my worry was coming from. I realized that if I lost it somewhere outside and someone walked by, they could look at my ID and see that I live an hour away. So how are they going to get it back to me? And it just so happened that that was the case. Someone managed to find it very soon after I dropped it and they took it inside. This was Dani. Dani held onto it, and I later found out that he tried his absolute hardest to get in contact with me. He reached out to me through Facebook and on Instagram, trying to just get my attention, wondering where I was and if I can reach out to find out if I was the one who lost my wallet. Thankfully, I have a very unique name, and it's pretty easy to find me on social media, online, wherever I may exist.

After we get back from the market, and I do another three sweeps and I still haven't found it, my sister had the idea of me moving my car right in front of her house, in front of her driveway. So that if someone walks by and sees my New Jersey license plate, they would know that they should check this house because my sister lives in Pennsylvania. We're sitting on the couch. I'm a little bit sad. My sister asks me how I'm doing. I say, "I'm doing just fine. I'll figure it out. It's not the end of the world." And as my sister said, everything in there is replaceable. There's nothing in my wallet that is truly life or death. I could get all my credit cards replaced. I could get my ID replaced. And so, at the very least, we're healthy, we're happy, we're okay.

Then there's a random knock on the door, and the doorbell rings, and we both look at each other with this anticipation of what if, just maybe, this could be someone with the wallet? And it happened to be my sister's neighbor from a few doors down, noticing that the car in front of the house was a New Jersey license plate. It was so great to hear from across the house, "Did someone here lose a wallet? Of Philip Jocks?" I immediately jumped off the couch and ran to the door and profusely showed my gratitude for finding my wallet and for keeping it safe, for trying their best to get it to me. And I told my sister as soon as it happened that the podcast was going to hear about this, that I would bring this up and talk about it.

And as I do, I immediately started wondering, what's the lesson? What can I take away from this experience? For starters, I am really grateful for my reaction in that I didn't get angry, I didn't get upset. I didn't let it ruin my day. I wasn't exactly excited that I may have lost my wallet and my ID, but I made sure to keep my head held high. I also took some key actions, such as putting my phone number on a piece of paper inside the wallet, because that is not something I had before, and it is something I have now, so I could avoid this type of situation in the future, or at least get it resolved sooner.

I'm not quite certain what the lesson could be or even why this happened, but I do know that at the very least, I'm extremely grateful. I'm grateful that there are kind and incredibly helpful people out there in this world. First of all, they didn't have to return the wallet. Part of free will is getting to make the decision as to what you want to do, how you may want to help someone. They could have just as easily left the wallet on the sidewalk or in the grass or wherever they found it. But instead, there are people out there that will go above and beyond to do the right thing, to do what they believe is the right thing. Because in between me losing the wallet and me getting it back was about three and a half, four hours, these kind people found my wallet, attempted to get in contact with me in many ways, and then ultimately just kept it in mind and remembered to look for the license plate later in the day, to then get it directly to me.

I'm just grateful that people like that exist. There are people out there that want to help others. It's not always easy doing this thing called life. I'm sure you know we have challenges and obstacles and opportunities in front of us all the time on our paths, on our journey towards our goals. And it's a good reminder that we don't always have to do it alone. We could spend time with our families. We could enjoy a nice afternoon, a nice dinner. We don't have to be working 24/7. I'm grateful for all the different content that's out there that differs in so many different ways because I think different people need to hear different things at different times.

There are times that I do need to hear the mindset of being on the grind and focusing for long periods of time and putting in the work. And then there's times when I need to hear different types of content about balance and rest and enjoying life. I'm in this place right now where I can appreciate working hard and doing what must be done to achieve a greater goal, while at the same time acknowledging tomorrow isn't guaranteed. And if the grind becomes miserable and purposeless, then what's the point? One of the least attractive things I could think of is working for 35, 40 years in a job that I hate, only to not get to retire. And by that, I mean your life gets cut short and, and so you spent 40 years miserable only to then die right before you retire. Obviously, not everybody has this situation, but it's a possibility. You increase the possibility of having this be your life the longer you stay in situations that make you miserable.

Simple. So it's important to get out of your own way sometimes. Enjoy what you're doing. We don't all have to be number one and create the biggest and best business out there or reach the top position in a company or help the most people in the world. Sometimes I think it's more important that we just do our part. If I had to give a random lesson to today, I would say that it's all right to separate yourself from your work and just enjoy the day.

Initially, when I was going to my sister's, I had plans of bringing up some of the stuff that I was working on in hopes that maybe I can help her. I could inspire her or show her that something that I'm working on is relevant to her and can help her in her job. I know my intention was to help, and I also realized that it would have taken away from just being in the moment. So maybe losing my wallet and completely blindsiding me knocked me out of that pattern, knocked me out of that expectation. And it wasn't a situation that was meant to inconvenience me long term. Just enough that I just be there in the moment. Because then later on, I did get the wallet back. It did reappear in my life.

This is all just a guess. Maybe there will be an even greater purpose later down the road. Who knows? Maybe I lose my wallet again someday, but this time, because my phone number's in there, it puts me in contact with someone that gives me some opportunity, one that I could choose to take a big leap in some area of my life. If something like that happens, I think it would be hilarious. And of course, the podcast will hear about it. And it's not for me to know right now, it's for me to experience later.

But my takeaway right now is just be here, be in this moment. Enjoy it. It's the only one you get. Smile. Because there's no gift like the present. I hope you have a spontaneous day. Double-check for me that you have your wallet. And when you find it, give yourself a pat on the back. It means you haven't lost it yet. Remember to always fill up with love, and I really look forward to seeing you in the next one. I love you.

For those enchanted by tales of serendipity and reminders to cherish the present, dive deeper into this heartwarming adventure on the original episode of “Experiencing Love.” Listen to the full episode for more insights and to join Philip Joks on an emotional journey that highlights the kindness of strangers and the beauty of life’s unpredictable moments. Click This Episode On Spotify to tune in. Let’s fill up with love, together.

Photo by Tamara Govedarovic on Unsplash