Mystery keys

Here at the cabins, I run across many orphaned keys with no labels or clue to their origin or what they might unlock. I always find them a bit intriguing.

Earlier this summer a key engraved with “do not duplicate” revealed itself in a cabin and recent guests did not claim it so how it came to be there we don’t know. Equally puzzling, a few years back some young boys at the cabins found a mysterious key on a wood fob that had obviously been lost for a very long time (guessing over 50 years!) before it was rediscovered.

A long-lost key found in 2019. I wonder who lost it?

Keys always unlock something.

It makes me wonder who lost these keys. Was it my grandma or grandpa? Were they important? Did they search for them? How did they stay hidden for so long?

Maybe keys show themselves again to remind us of those who unlocked so many doors before us. When you think about it, there is a lot of power in a key. Essentially a key lets us in, whether it be to a cabin, a car, a safe or, in a more proverbial sense, we talk about keys unlocking our heart or the universe.

And then you think, why do we lock things in the first place? For protection, of course, but wouldn’t it be an interesting world if keys weren’t required?

In reality, most long-lost keys will never find their home again or the lock that they are paired with. Still, we keep them, never knowing what they might reveal to us down the road.