Giving a SoCk a New Lease On Life

Hey look, a real post!  I did it!  Go me!

Enjoy the meandering SoCk Moment! ;-)

What do you do when your socks wear out?  Have you ever, really thought about it?  In another post a while back, I think I mentioned that I take our old socks, mark them, and then use them for various things around the house.  They are fabulous cleaning rags; soft yet absorbent.  They are terrific as over-the-hand dusters or window cleaners.  They are wonderful as catch-alls for my various art projects - they catch paint, rinse water, work as a buffer, hold furniture touch-up markers, etc.

So it's nice that our old socks can be given such a "new lease on life", so to speak.  That inherited need to follow the misquoted cliché attributed to Ben Franklin, "A penny saved is a penny earned", works well here, as I have been working increasingly to find ways to make new out of what would be unusable in it's former state.

This post is not about cleaning, nor recycling, however.

Well, I suppose in a way it is.  I'm not really talking about old laundry items, though.  I was, but I didn't intend to continue along that line; hence this paragraph, and the line before it.  Since I was kinda moving us into another SoCk, I figured I'd just let you know it was happening.  It's a meandering segue, but a segue it is!  Where was I?  Oh yes, the not about laundry thing.

So, what on earth was my point, you might ask?  That would be a fair question.  My thoughts have been drifting toward the idea that sometimes people can be like old socks.

What?  Pardon?  Did I read that right, you ask?

Yes, I just compared people to old socks.  In what way?  Well, sometimes Life decides to throw caution to the wind, and a few other things, to boot.  Suddenly what was a decent, even happy or content life gets thrown into chaos, and everything changes.  Or maybe it was never really easy, with very few pauses to rest in it's near-constant  barrage of painful or threatening events or situations.  And just like a sock that gets worn through it all, sometimes people wear out.  Sometimes they wear thin in places, or get holes in them, or start to fray or get stretched til they can't hold up anymore, and they start to sag.  I see it a lot, actually.  It's a shame, but people do wear out sometimes.

Sometimes life feels a bit . . .
. . . gray . . . 

If you, the reader, have ever experienced this sort of thing, my condolences.  I know there are those who get to that point and it's like a near-death experience . . . just like that old sock that is about to be thrown out.  And sometimes it might feel like there is no use left for such a worn out thing that simply cannot serve its original, intended purpose.

And that's okay.  Well, not *okay*, perhaps.  But it doesn't have to be The End.  It can be the end of an era, perhaps, or at least a segment of one's life, but it doesn't have to be the end of one's future possibilities.

Just like that old sock, it might take some creative thinking, some planning, some work to make the change in purpose happen.  The reincarnation of a soul does not have to happen with the loss of a heartbeat.  We have the power to recreate ourselves, so why don't more people try it?

So, when the time comes that Absolute Loss feels looming, perhaps it is the time to redirect your purpose.  Find a new lease on life for yourself.  Find out what you never realized was the passion of your heart, and go for it!  If you have nothing left to lose, what can you lose by finding out what feels like gaining the world?

Reinventing your life can bring the color
back into your world.

Yeah yeah, what do I know?  I have no idea.  Maybe nothing.  But you never know . . . it just might work.  And there are opportunities to practice, whether or not one loses absolutely everything.  Sometimes it might simply boil down to a feeling of being unsatisfied with one's life, and needing a change, perhaps.  Sometimes a bit of change is good for the soul, after all.  Maybe it's time to reinvent a new, personal wheel? 

You never know . . . especially if you never try it.

~ Me