I found a school sock in my bag

Dear Delyara, I was looking for my card at the till and instead pulled out one small navy sock, slightly inside out, with fluff stuck to it. I knew immediately how it got there. Some rushed morning, some missing pair, some half-solved crisis before 8 a.m., and I must have shoved it into my bag thinking I’d deal with it later. Later never came. I stood there for a second holding the sock and felt that familiar mixture of affection and tiredness that family life produces so easily. My bag is no longer really my bag. It’s a mobile storage unit for unfinished domestic situations, emergency snacks, crumpled receipts, hair ties, tissues, and apparently now orphaned uniform items. I paid for the shopping, put the sock back in, and thought: yes, that’s exactly what this season of life feels like. Carrying loose ends around until I find a moment to become the place they can be solved.