I have a problem and it might be familiar to you.

There are 5 people in my house and I wash a lot of socks. On my radiator I have what I call Sockworld; lots of socks without a pair. Every time I wash, there is nothing more satisfying than pairing up socks. Things coming together as one, in a nice neat order. More often than not there are lots of odd socks. It makes me cross. I’ve washed everything in the basket, I’ve scouted round the house and still I can’t find the thing that matches up. There is a monster in my house who is eating all the socks! I blame my mother, she had sockworld so its a genetic defect she’s given to me. My children blame me. ‘ I’ve just got new socks mum and I’ve lost one, what are you doing?’. It’s not my fault it’s their’s, they don’t put pairs in the wash, tough luck!

Eventually I throw the odd socks away. There’s no point in carrying on waiting for socks to turn up. It’s a sad moment when my desire for order, socks coming together, doesn’t happen and the odd ones are cast into the bin. It’s a relief when its done, I’m no longer searching for order, sometimes it’s just not there. It’s a mystery that can’t be solved. Loose ends that don’t match up.

Then what happens; several months later that odd sock turns up in a duvet. I’m really happy at the prospect of things coming together but I’ve binned the other sock. So reluctantly I have to throw this sock away. Throw away what’s not useful any more. It’s a relief really when you stop searching for order where it doesn’t exist and when you accept that, the quest for the impossible can end. Or you can turn them into draught excluders. Ah, they can be useful when you change you see them.

So you can only deal with what you’ve got. Sometimes you don’t always get what you want and that’s OK. There are lots of other sock pairs to appreciate. And what about the frustrating stuff? Bin it or change the way you respond to it. No one’s to blame, it’s just the way things go sometimes. There always have been odd socks and there always will be. Life’s like that, so accept it, get on with it and appreciate the lovely socks you have got. Things don’t always make sense and that’s OK, so change the sense you make of it.