Laundry

I am a self-proclaimed neat freak when it comes to homemaking.  Call me a perfectionist, ok I am a perfectionist, when it comes to my sanctuary.  Putsying around and fussing with this and that has a calming effect that is necessary for my sanity. Like the old saying, “Chop wood, carry water”, cleaning is a life routine that I can count on for instant gratification and predictability in the madness of life.  It is grounding and centering, a way to slow down and be present to the normalcy of life.

Laundry is particularly gratifying, my Zen of clean clothes.  I love the mindful simplicity of it.  Sort, wash, dry, fold, put away.  There is the focused inspection and discernment of which clothes need soaking and which ones can be thrown in without effort.  My son’s clothes are always in the soaking pile.  Like all little boys, he’s an infamous stain monger finding every way to turn a white shirt grey in less than an hour!  Holding his mud stained shirts and smelly socks, I wonder just what he got into that day.

The clothes get dirty, the hamper is full, and the underwear runs out.  Sort, wash, dry, fold, put away.  The necessity for clean clothes is constant.  What you wear out the door gets dirty, then it needs to be washed and mended.  No matter what, we all need clean clothes. Laundry is a literal common thread of humanity.  Sort, wash, dry, fold, put away.  For some it is a crude process of sort, beat on a rock in a river, hang to dry, carry home.  We may have replaced washboards with washing machines, but the need is a constant.

The uninteresting and repetitive act of washing clothes is in fact a sacred practice.  Life moves us like clothes on an old washboard where bumps and ridges roll us over and over until we are washed and cleansed of all debris.  The hands of the Divine gently move our bodies over the surface of life working the fabric of our stories to release the stains from the world.  Then we are gently placed in the sun and bathed in the wind until we are ready to be worn again.

Take time to be in the stillness of the day, even when doing your laundry.

With love and laughter, Namaste.