Waypoints: 30 Days of Gratitude
This month, Moteventure turns its compass toward the quiet power of thankfulness. Waypoints: 30 Days of Gratitude is a daily storytelling journey through resilience, grace, and the moments that anchor us. Each post will be a marker — a pause along the path — where gratitude reveals itself in unexpected ways. From small gestures to life-altering kindness, these stories invite reflection, connection, and a deeper appreciation for the light we find (and share) along the way.
Every path has its waypoints. If gratitude lit yours, leave a note beneath this post.
The Wallet in the Woods
In the fall of 2013, a hiker named Elise was walking a trail near Decorah, Iowa, when she spotted something half-buried beneath a patch of leaves. It was a leather wallet — worn, cracked, and clearly aged. Inside were faded photos, a few receipts, and a driver’s license that had expired in 1997.
The name on the ID was Thomas R. Keane. Elise brought the wallet to the local sheriff’s office, expecting it to be tossed in a lost-and-found bin. But the deputy on duty paused. “That name,” he said, “was tied to a robbery case years ago.”
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Thomas Keane had been a suspect in a string of small-town burglaries in the late ’90s. He vanished before charges were filed. No one ever found him. No one ever found the stolen items either — mostly heirlooms, jewelry, and cash from rural homes.
The wallet reignited interest (and the fire). A local journalist picked up the story, and soon, tips began trickling in. One led to an abandoned farmhouse deep in the woods. Inside, investigators found a box — water-damaged but intact — filled with some of the missing items. Among them was a locket belonging to a woman named Ruth, whose home had been broken into in 1996.
Ruth was in her eighties now. When the sheriff returned the locket, she held it to her chest and cried. “I thought it was gone forever,” she said. “It was my mother’s.”
No one ever found Thomas Keane. The trail went cold again. But the mystery had given something back — not just the locket, but a sense of closure, a ripple of grace through a community that had long carried unanswered questions.
Elise, the hiker, never expected her walk to matter. But she later said, “I didn’t solve anything. I just found a wallet. But maybe that was enough.”
Sometimes, gratitude arrives not in answers, but in the quiet return of what was lost.
MOTEVENTURE 