" T R U L Y  A P P R E C I A T E
L I F E,  A N D  Y O U
W I L L  F I N D  T H A T  Y O U
H A V E  M O R E  O F  I T "
Ralph Marston

" A B U N D A N C E
I S  N O T  S O M E T H I N G
W E  A C Q U I R E.
I T  I S  S O M E T H I N G
W E  T U N E  I N T O "
Wayne Dyer

" B E C O M I N G
A W A R E  O F
T H E  M I R A C L E  O F
B E I N G  A L I V E
C A N  T U R N  W H A T  W E
C A L L  O R D I N A R Y  L I F E
I N T O  A  M I R A C L E "
Dan Wakefield

My granddaughter was having a dream. It was not a good dream or a bad dream, just a dream about her socks. She was sleeping in her sleeping bag, next to her sister sleeping in her sleeping bag, on the living room floor under a sheet tent that Grandpa had built for them. They were on a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

She could only find one of her socks. Where was the other sock? It was missing. She had it last night before she went to bed.

"Help me find my sock," she said to her sister. "Help me find my sock," she said to both Grandma and Grandpa. "One of my socks is missing. I need my socks, my feet are getting cold."

"It's probably in your sleeping bag," said her sister. "Where have you looked?" asked both Grandma and Grandpa.

"No, it is not in my sleeping bag, I looked there," she said. "I have looked everywhere for it," she added. "My feet are cold and I only have one sock."

"Well, isn't that just the way it is? People think about their feet before they think enough about their socks not to lose them," said a voice that came out of the sock in my granddaughter's hand.

She held up the sock in complete surprise. Her sister, and both Grandma and Grandpa stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at the sock.

"Now that I have your attention," said the sock, "I have something very important for all of you to hear, so please listen. It is time socks were appreciated."

"Socks are always supposed to be in pairs. They look just alike, like identical twins. There are girl identical twin socks for girl's feet and boy identical twin socks for boy's feet," lectured the sock.

"It is so important not to lose one of your socks," explained the sock, "because what happens then. The other poor single sock lays all alone on the folding table, never to be worn, and totally forgotten, unless its twin shows up in another wash. Single socks are of little use. Would you wear two different kinds of single socks?" asked the sock.

Heads shook from side to side all around the room.

"Some people actually use single socks to play tug-a-war with their dog, and getting bitten and stretched is really no fun at all. We were not made to be toys for silly dogs. Are all of you still listening?"

Headed nodded up and down all around the room.

"Why don't people appreciate socks more? We do such important work for you and it goes unrecognized. We are just taken for granted."

"We have about the dirtiest job of all the clothing. What happens when you walk into a house? Think about it," demanded the sock. "You take off your shoes and walk around in socks. Socks are always picking up the loose dirt and dust that is on the floor, and then people complain about how hard it is to get their socks clean," said the sock in a disgusted voice. "Have you thought about it?" asked the sock.

Heads slowly nodded a little bit, up and down, all around the room.

"Imagine what it is like for us to have smell stinky feet all day," said the sock. "We are inside of shoes where there is no fresh air. It is gross and yucky! Would you like to smell stinky feet all day?"

Heads shook from side to side all around the room.

"Feet are not pretty. They are not like eyes; they are more like nostrils. No one looks too closely at feet and nostrils. And if they do, people worry; do I have dirt between my toes or a bugger in my nose?" said the sock. "Socks cover up feet because they are not pretty. Maybe single socks could be used to cover up noses because nostrils are not pretty," smiled the sock.

"Shoes get all the attention," said the sock. "People might say, oh what pretty shoes you have, but they don't say, oh what pretty white cotton socks you have. They would hardly notice socks, unless, of course, the socks had holes in them, and then they would make fun of the socks. Isn't that right?"

Heads nodded up and down all around the room.

"No one wants a pair of socks for Christmas or their birthday. Oh, a pair of socks, they would say, how nice," said the sock with a sneer. "But a pair of gloves, or a pair of ear rings or a pair of warm slippers, or a pair of sunglasses, would be just great. Would you like to have a pair of socks for Christmas or your birthday?"

Heads shook from side to side all around the room.

"It is no wonder that people lose their socks," complained the sock. "After all, they have a whole drawer full anyway. With so many pairs of socks, one little sock is just not very important. Imagine what it would be like if you could only have one pair of socks? If a sock went missing, you would only have one sock to wear. What would you do without a pair of socks?"

Heads sat motionless in thought all around the room.

And then my granddaughter said, "Well, maybe I would put the single sock on my nose to cover up my nostrils."

Everyone laughed, including the sock.

"Wake up, wake up, hurry, its time to get into Grandma and Grandpa's bed to have cookies," she heard her sister say.

She slowly got out of her sleeping bag, next to her sister's sleeping bag on the living floor under the tent that Grandpa had built. She started to run toward Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom. And then she stopped. She went back to pick up her socks that were lying in the scatter of her other clothes. She put the two socks together into a pair and carefully laid them on the chair by the tent where she would be able to find them.