By Helen Huntsman

My husband’s voice called from the kitchen: “Have you seen my car keys?”

I was upstairs folding laundry and honestly, I was confused. I responded, “Pardon?”

You have to understand—in our 38 years of marriage, my husband has NEVER lost his car keys. Not once. When we bought his car, we even decided to skip buying a spare key because, well, he never loses them. (Hindsight, am I right?)

I called back down, “No, I haven’t seen your car key. Would you like me to help you look for it?”

(Yes, I’ve learned the wisdom of asking if he wants help first.)

He replied, “No, I’ll let you know.”

In that moment, I pictured him smiling and holding the keys in his hand. And I quietly thought, I am grateful that John is holding his keys in his hands.

Two days passed. He kept looking, solo. Eventually, he started brainstorming with me: “If the keys were in the car, it shouldn’t have locked. So I need to get into the car.”

He grabbed a wire hanger and spent four hours trying to break into his very secure, supposedly "theft-proof" car. I got the thought: Call Triple A. I acted on it.

I suggested, “Why don’t we call Triple A? They can open it.”

A technician came and had it open in five minutes.

Through all of this, I kept hearing the phrase in my mind: It’s in a dark place.

We dug through the snow around the car (we had record snowfall this year). We cleaned the garage, thinking maybe the keys had fallen out there. Still, no keys.

Then I asked, “How much does it cost to get a new key?” thinking it wouldn’t be too bad.

Turns out, the key alone was $300, and the car had to be towed to the farthest possible dealership. Still, I stayed calm. We needed a key, so we’d get a key.

John kept checking in: “Are you still seeing it in a dark place?”

“Yes,” I replied.

He was nervous about the cost of towing, but because I had previously acted on the prompting to get a Triple A membership, it saved us nearly $2,000.

As we prepared to tow the car, John ran upstairs to grab his shoes. He opened his sock drawer, pulled out a pair, and heard clink.

The keys.

They had been in a dark place. Literally—his sock drawer.

He came down holding them in his hand, just like I had pictured. So we called Triple A to bring his car back and he then bought a key finder.

I was proud of how I stayed calm the whole time. Every time we checked a new place, I just said, “Okay, not here. Next place.”

A little backstory: as the oldest of nine kids, I was always the one searching for missing shoes and other chaos-inducing items. I used to get really stressed when things were missing. But I’ve come a long way. I now ask if someone wants help. And I know it’s not my job to fix it all.

So what does this have to do with the Law of Perpetual Transmutation?

As Leslie Householder explains in Hidden Treasures (page 31!), when you want something—whether it’s a trip, a job, or a lost set of keys—it first exists in thought, or spirit. Hold the idea, trust the process, and let it gather the elements it needs until it becomes visible.

I imagined the keys in John’s hands. I acted on inspired ideas. We kept moving forward. He had to make the decision to tow the car. That’s what brought him to his sock drawer—and to the keys.

Something I learned in this instance is to keep moving forward, to keep the process of transmuting happening. John had to decide to get the car towed, because he works from home – he needed a reason to go to his specific sock drawer to get his shoes on (we won’t go into this, but my husband loves socks and has different drawers). We were pretty snowed in and avoiding driving for fun or running errands, we are in the rocky mountains, lol!

What You Can Learn from This

I often get asked, “How can I get my spouse to be more into personal development?”

My answer: live it. Model it. Let it become normal.

They have their own agency.

Move forward in faith. There was no drama, no blaming. Just calm, consistent action and trust. I never said, “How could you lose your keys?”—he already felt bad enough!

Oh, and yes, definitely get Triple A. 😉

Let’s Connect

I love connecting with people who choose co-creation over chaos, and who are learning that success comes in baby steps, not giant leaps.

Find me on TikTok and Instagram @PivotYourLife. Hope to see you soon!

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