Unpaired Socks and Teachable Moments

Some of our experiences in life stand out as “teachable moments.” Here is just one example of a teachable moment about letting go of control.

For me, it was easy to look like a saint on the outside as I mothered nine little people. The trouble was, although I looked like I lived a life of self-denial, losing myself to give life to others, I tended to over-control. I depended on my strength to get through the overwhelming chores which were part of running a household of eleven.

I slowly learnt how to let some things go and centre on the essentials, on loving and not maintaining a perfectly clean house with all the laundry folded in dresser drawers.

Surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit within our spirits can seem like a rather esoteric activity, something to talk about, write about, and perhaps pray about but not part of our daily lives but our inner and outer lives are intricately entwined. This means when I learnt how to let go of control in my inner life, it affected how I dealt with daily life.

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"Unpaired Socks and Teachable Moments" by Melanie Jean Juneau (CatholicMom.com)

Via Pixabay (2004), CC0 Public Domain

Example: how to deal with mismatched socks.

Fact: When eleven people wear 22 socks every day for a week it means 154 individual socks to wash and pair every week.

Fact: The only thing that could kill you as a mother of a large family is pairing socks.

I realize there are many solutions to the sock problem. Some are outrageous.

For example, I remember a crazy, campfire song, from my childhood, that we usually sang in rounds.

"Black socks, they never get dirty;

The longer you wear them, the blacker they get.

Sometimes, I think I should wash them

But something keeps telling me
Oh, not yet, not yet, not yet!"

I did not seriously consider this option, though. After only one day stuck inside an active child's running shoe, socks reek. I had 154 stinky socks to wash every week, at the bare minimum. Oh well, sometimes I did four loads of laundry a day and socks really didn't take up that much room.

Still, socks disappeared into mountains of laundry and I could never find them all. Do you have any idea where 154 socks can hide every week? I had to look between sheets, under Chesterfield and chairs, behind closet doors, inside wet boots, in school bags, under toy baskets, inside of pant legs and even, if I was lucky, in one of eleven dirty-clothes baskets and still I could not find them all.

I had to pair all the socks! Or Did I? That was the brilliant, out-of-the-box sort of question I asked myself one day.

New solution.

Buy lots of black socks in every size. Surely some semblance of a pair of socks would be easier to find.

That was the new plan.

I simply tossed the black socks into a wicker basket with a three-foot circumference and a height of two and a half feet and hoped for the best.

However, I had managed to overlook one important fact. I had six daughters. Little girls don't like black socks. They like pink socks. To make matters worse, my mother bought cute socks with frills and bows and patterns that the girls really needed and loved.

None of them were the same! So although I used the toss and throw method of pairing, some mornings found us frantically searching for some appearance of a pair.

At times, I had to literally toss the newly discovered pair over the upstairs railing. One of my kids, who already had their coat and school bag on their back, would catch them in mid-air. They quickly pulled on their socks, stuffed their feet into boots or shoes and flew out the door, barely making the school bus.

People joke about washing machines eating socks. Rationally, I know that this is a silly answer to my dilemma but the more I think about it, the better I like the whimsical answer.

I could kill myself trying to control everyone's sock habits but really, life is much, more interesting if we relax a bit and joke about our failings and foibles. God seems to like those who realize they are failures because then He can finally save them from themselves.

Reflecting on my story of mismatched socks, it really is apparent that God is present in everything in our daily lives. Hopefully, my story is helpful to some of you and I encourage you to share some of your own! Stories can be helpful in guiding through life or even teaching lessons.