My husband wanted to go to Mackinac Island in Michigan as a bucket list trip this summer. But that wasn’t his whole plan; he also wanted to take our nearby children and their spouses and then stay at the Grand Hotel. He has a fascination with places that have appeared in movies, and the Grand Hotel and its grounds were used for the 1980 romantic drama Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour.

In our rush to make the ferry to the island, I forgot to lock our car, which was parked in the ferry parking lot. I also forgot my iPad and phone charging cord in the car, and I realized all this about halfway across Lake Huron on the ferry bound for Mackinac Island.

My typical reaction would be to fret and worry about someone stealing the car or at the very least, taking the ancient iPad and extra snacks we left in there. But in the true spirit of a bucket list trip, I decided I was not going to think about the unlocked car until we returned on Sunday. And I never thought once about the unlocked car because there was nothing I could do about it. Instead, I trusted that whatever happened, we would figure out a solution.

We did all the things we wanted to do and ate lots of sweet treats (I’m talking about you, caramel turtles). When the ferry shuttle deposited us back at the parking lot, I might have held my breath until I saw the car in its spot and opened the door (unlocked, of course) to find the ancient iPad and cords still in the seat pocket, right where I left them. I’m still a worrier by nature, but I glimpsed the power of letting go of that which you cannot control. And I liked it.