Pliers From Many Hands

A selection of different types of jewelry pliers lying in a pile on a white plastic table, among a number of other jewelry tools, including a few polishing cloths, a few spools of wire, and a chasing hammer. A half-finished wire-wrap pendant lies in the background.

I don't know what happened to my pliers.
I don't have enough of a full picture of exactly when my working bag of projects disappeared, but I can't find them after this past month's road trip. Also lost are the two silver and turquoise pendants that I made, a card with eight turquoise cabochons remaining, a small jasper doughnut wrapped in copper, the start of a custom for a friend, and a handful of my prettier labradorite beads.
The pendants were all to be sent off mid-trip, which I thought was clever, but ended up being my downfall. I hadn't finished the pendants in time to send them before I left Arizona, but as I was going to be on a bit of a vacation, taking my time, and they were for a collector, I didn't want to make them wait until I got to Georgia. I had just completed the payment details after leaving camp on Tuesday, resting in a hotel room in Peyson. When I looked to send them off on Saturday in Santa Fe, they were gone. They had been in my backpack, which I had been bringing into every hotel room (in my mind, that way they would be available at all times to be sent off when I got things figured out, but in retrospect gave them many more opportunities to be lost. I had also been carrying my pliers on the optimistic supposition that I would be interested in working after driving all day. There was a long list of places where they could be, at what point did they disappear?
Long story short, they still haven't turned up. I refunded the customer, and declared my tools missing. I was kind of embarrassed, what fully functional adult loses a full set of expensive jewelry pliers and customs? Worse, I work jewelry at my next job, so I need my pliers to literally make money.
I texted my jewelry friend, who I had also wintered with, asking if she had any pliers to spare. She lent me her backups. I got to the booth and started working, I got a pair of flush cutters passed in my direction. Another coworker lent me their set of slightly nicer backups at the end of the shift on Sunday so I could work on making thing the rest of the week.
My cup truly overfloweth.

I think it's generally understood intellectually, if not practically, these days that the “self-made man” is a myth. You don't get to where you're going in life in a vacuum, there are always the relationships you develop along the way to see you through. I've had a number of experiences this past month remind me of that fundamental truth, the pile of pliers being just the start.

Take care of each other. It all comes back eventually.