Thoughts On A Bud and A Sock

What is going on?!

I walked out this morning to retrieve the daily newspaper and noticed that the saucer magnolia (?) in my patio has a huge flower and another on the way, and it's only February 4! It just doesn't seem right. Feeling that the bud must feel confused in this crazy back-and-forth weather we've been having, I confess to a pang of pity as I looked up at it.  

Though it kills me to admit it, I like order in the universe.  I can fairly readily adapt to change, if necessary, but I like the regular rhythm of things.  I'm comforted by knowing what to expect, what I can count on (which seems less and less these days).  So, you can imagine that I feel solidarity with a lot of other folks who are going bonkers with the current status of just about everything in the surrounding society, around the globe actually, in nature, in politics, etc.  Amidst all this my son, Andrew's prolonged illness and the uncertainty of its resolution has knocked me for a loop.

Then, last Friday, which is my laundry day (remember, I like order!), I came up one sock short.  It always drives me to distraction, though it's not unusual for a sock to get stuck inside the washer or dryer, or to fall to some place in the closet, usually in some unreachable place which tests my "senior" ability of coordination to retrieve it.  Anyway, I'm a sock short;  so for the past four days my Inner Calming Spirit: you know, the one that's always whispering things in your ear, says to me: "Just be cool.  It's here somewhere and it'll show up.  Did you shake out the clothes from the 

dryer?"  "Yeah, I did, piece by piece," I reply in frustration.  "Well, be cool: it'll show up sooner or later."  And past experience, I admit, has proven that to be generally true.

It was cold this morning, so I wore one of my warm plaid shirts, one which I had thoroughly checked for the sock last Friday.  I'm standing at the kitchen sink, washing out the coffee pot.  I look down, and there's the sock!  "Feel better?" smirks the ICS.  "You had to ask, didn't you?", I sputter.

Then something came to mind which Jesus already told us a long time ago: "I tell you, don't worry about your life...Isn't the body more than clothing [including socks]?...Look at the flowers...how they grow...So don't worry...Today's trouble is enough for today..."

OK, once again I get it!