It was Tuesday... laundry day. Bridget loaded the washer then stepped outside, sat on the bench and entered the Grove.
Nova was waiting for her, sitting cross legged on the grass under the moonlit trees.
"Stormseed!" He called out. "Come sit with me!"
Bridget rushed to Nova and plopped down on her belly, chin resting in her hands. "Hi!" She said excitedly."
She told him about doing laundry, the drudgery of it. Loading and waiting and unloading and reloading and waiting again... and then folding and... oh, she hated laundry.
"Stormseed... you need something to shift your thinking. You need.... a laundry god." With the seriousness of a college professor talking about Germ Theory he continued, "Sockrus... that patron god of lost socks. When a sock loses his mate in the dryer, he goes to live with Sockrus. Sockrus is god of the misfit, the lost, the unpaired. Stormseed.... would you like to make a Sockrus? You could leave him in the lost and found for someone to take home with them."
Bridget loved that idea! Something that could be fun and also create something to give to others... Nova was shining brighter by the minute.
Nova led her through the steps of creating the newly sanctioned god. A lost sock, stuffed full of other lost socks. In the middle was a handwritten note in three parts, a blessing, guidance, and a challenge. "Blessed are the lost, for they don't know where they shouldn't be going."
"Listen to the bees... they are never wrong."
"Smile at a stranger for no reason."
Bridget pulled out a small sewing kit from her purse and threaded the bottom of Sockrus shut, leaving a long, obvious thread. On the outside she pinned a paper with instructions. "Sometimes destruction brings wisdom. Don't be afraid to pull the thread."
Bridget placed Sockrus in the lost and found and continued her laundry, while she and Nova discussed cracks, absurdity, and revolution. She took a deep breath and smiled softly.