For the Love of Laundry
There is something about the Lenten season that calls us to confess our faults as well as our deepest loves. The love that I confess is one for laundry. I have a sneaky suspicion that some of you may snicker at these words. I fully expect at least one of you to ask me (jokingly?) if I’d like to take on your loads of laundry!
The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women’s Work by Kathleen Norris is not a how-to guide on laundry itself but rather a reflection on how seemingly mundane tasks like laundry can draw us deeper into the mystery of God. Norris calls us to rethink household “chores” as opportunities for worship. For years, the “work” of laundry on Saturday has helped prepare me for worship on Sunday morning. The sorting. The cleaning out of pockets. The measuring of the detergent. The waiting for silence as the machines’ whirrs fade. What soothes me the most is the folding: shaping disfigured cloth into four-sided figures. From a pile of disorder, order emerges. From chaos comes separation of lights and darks. Every load of laundry is an invitation to experience the creation story. I try not to live in bondage to the laundry but rather live into the freedom it offers.
The Lenten season invites us toward the freedom Christ offers not only in his death and resurrection but also in the journey towards that victory. On his way to the cross, Jesus dealt with a lot of “menial” tasks. He literally got his hands muddy to heal a blind man. He scrubbed his friends’ feet. He approached the unapproachable lepers. Now is a perfect opportunity to look at the everyday and ordinary tasks as opportunities for prayer and new life.
all good things to each of you,
dr. d