Sometimes a little miracle can get you through the morning

What seems like a lifetime ago, mornings at our house were often lessons in chaos, and I was the teacher. It seemed I was rarely current with the laundry, the nights before were filled with activities and homework, and no amount of preplanning was ever enough. Not to mention that my own lack of personal discipline probably contributed to this breakfast bedlam. Who knew that all I needed was a little miracle?

With four kiddos getting ready for school, mornings usually had some sort of crisis:

Gym days required special uniforms on certain letter days that did NOT correspond with the days of the week. (Did we really need to add an F day?!!!)

It may or may not have been our turn for snack in any of several classrooms.

“Mom, the book club orders are due today!”

“I need a permission slip to stay for band practice.”

“I forgot I have library today; have you seen the book I took out last week?”

As much as we tried to get everything ready the night before (along with baths and showers), sometimes in the morning the wheels would still fall off the wagon for one reason or another.

Looking back, one of the most frequent stressors for me were socks. Five people were leaving the house each morning. The required colors were a constant. This shouldn’t have been rocket science.

In retrospect, it seems like such an easy thing to just have purchased plenty more pairs than we needed. But those were often the days of tight budgets. I tried to keep everyone’s laundry separate and occasionally I’d lose track of who needed what on any given day.

The worst was when I would hear the deepest voice in the house call out, “Mare…this sock has a hole in it, do I have any downstairs?” (I mean, you can fake producing a clean sock for a kid…but not for their fastidious father.)

I would go to the basement with little optimism and a lot of dread, knowing that there likely wasn’t another pair for him in any of the bins that were stacked with clean, folded and sorted kid clothes.

And on that most chaotic of mornings, in the most unlikely of chances, knowing I was on a fool’s errand, I would open the dryer and find…A SINGLE HOLE-FREE BLACK SOCK!

No reason for it to be there, no reason for me to even think it possible…and yet, there it was:

A sock MIRACLE.

“Sock miracle” became the phrase that stuck, and I have used it ever since to describe those unlikely bailouts that seem like they somehow must have come from above.

Sock miracles have shown up in other guises. Running five or ten minutes behind for an important appointment, I leave the house and discover no traffic, make every light and arrive… on time, no less. That sock miracle happened in late December, amid this year’s Christmas chaos and a little medical scare for my mom.

A sock miracle also happened on Monday of this week at a scheduled dental appointment, when I was supposed to have a crown replaced and a cavity attended (thank you, Swedish Fish).

While I was seated in the chair, the dentist announced himself by asking, “Why are we replacing your crown? I don’t think we need to do that!”

Ummm, okay! I won’t argue!

As for the cavity? He decided it was a shadow on the X-ray.

Sock Miracle. Thank you very much, have a nice day!

My aunt was a Sister of St. Joseph. On special occasions she would send gift cards noting that my family and I were being remembered in Masses and that she was praying for our intentions.

Sometimes I wondered if those Masses or prayers were the reason I experienced those small, but significant graces.

Mmmmmmmmmmaybe not. I’m mindful every day that there are families dealing with REAL crises: hardships; loss; illness; and more. Among them, I am certain, are people desperately praying for real miracles.

And, they likely won’t get what they’re praying for. So, I should be able to find a sock and call that a miracle?

I’m not sure it’s logical that whoever runs the great beyond would find reason to put a sock in my path or clear a couple of stoplights, but wouldn’t find one to save the sick child of a parent who prays fervently.

Those are the moments when I feel like my happy little thoughts of things like sock miracles border on insensitivity and tone deafness.

I don’t know why, but suffering is often an inexplicable part of life.

But so is luck.

Happiness.

Sadness.

Life.

Death.

But maybe an occasional sock miracle is the little grace you need to keep you afloat on the days you might feel like you’re drowning. Not a parting of the sea kind of miracle—just a little glimmer of hope to let you know that someone, somewhere, is looking out for you…via a hole-free black sock.

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Sock miracles, parking angels and more…

In case you haven’t figured it out, this month’s “Where Bloggers Live” topic is “Glimmers: Life’s Little Miracles.” I think everyone can use a little glimmer in their lives, and I can’t wait to see what my blogging pals have shared. I also invite you to share any of YOUR little miracles below. Maybe our connection in this little blogging circle is a sock miracle in itself!

So, be sure to visit:

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at OnceUponaTimeandHappilyEverAfterAgain
(Me) and
Sally at Within a World of My Own