Laundry never ends and it never minds waiting on us either. No matter how busy we are, or how much we ignore the looming (and growing) pile in the corner, laundry will always be there.
I once worked at a little coffee shop in downtown Troy that had a lot of 'regulars'. These people were as diverse as each snowflake in the middle of a snowy winter and each had their own unique story (and favorite drink). But I got to know quite a bit of them pretty well and even now (almost 4 years later) I still see a few of them from time to time. I miss their stories and their faces, but I haven't forgotten their wise words or how it made me feel to listen to what each of them had to say.
I was talking with one of them one day, an older lady who worked for the city. She had been fighting cancer but you would have never known, she was always so well put-together and had the most gorgeous silver hair. She liked hot green tea in the morning, not coffee, and the subject of laundry came up. She had three grown boys and told me they spent a many years 'living off the pile' because sometimes life is just too busy for laundry.
And I've never forgotten that. Or the term.
We often 'live off the pile' at our home. Not because I'm too busy to do laundry, or to put it away, rather, but because life has too much to offer sometimes to stay focused on the little things. Our house could almost always use a good cleaning and there is almost always laundry waiting to be put away. But you know what? I don't think I'll ever look back and say 'I wish I had done more laundry'.
The one thing that I carried away from my conversation with this sweet old lady was that it was okay. It was okay to 'live off the pile 'sometimes, and it was okay to let the housework fall to the side in order to enjoy this time in my life. My son will only be this age once and when he's moved out of the house and on his own, I have a feeling that I'm going to miss that looming pile of laundry in the corner.
I love your post- especially the descriptive snowflake analogy! What a great lesson learned from the green tea drinker! Thanks for sharing that! www.cgdickson.com
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to read it!
DeleteHi. This is so true. The laundry can wait. I have always thought it would be fun to work in a coffee shop. I love to hear peoples stories. There is so much more to every person if we can just take the time to find out their story.
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday!
:) Jen
So very, very true! Everyone has their own story, and often our stories can help others realize who we are.
DeleteI'm going to make the hubs read this one. I swear he is always trying to get laundry done. Me? Well, I'd rather skip the laundry altogether. There's too much good stuff going on to stop and fold a load of laundry!
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly. I mean, when we're older and our kids have left home, I get the feeling that we're going to have plenty of time to do laundry!
DeleteI love hat phrase living off the pile! And "life has too much offer to stay focused on the little things." Ive heard this message so many times, but God been really bringing it home recently and man that living of the pie is going to stick! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOh laundry, the bane of my existence haha. Good thing Kyle does it when I don't want to.
ReplyDelete