Sunday, October 02, 2005

Me, God and Dirty Dishes

by Anita S. Lane

I used to despise washing dishes. Just ask my husband. I would rant and rave like a two-year-old fighting bedtime. After all, I was five when my family bought our first home with a dish washer and somehow I ended up thirty-five washing dishes by hand.

I was so enamored with the purchase of our first home that I didn’t even notice there wasn’t a dishwasher in the updated kitchen. Adding a dishwasher now would require re-working the entire kitchen—not worth it. So here I am washing the dishes. And up until recently, it had no redeeming qualities nor did I see any benefit—besides clean dishes for eating.

But with each beautiful addition to our family, my time became more scarce. Then at one point both me and my husband launched major business endeavors. Most of the day my mind was buried in the details of at least a dozen things. Once the children were sound asleep, I’d finish up my tasks for the evening and wash the dishes before retiring to bed.

Sometimes I’d find myself washing dishes at midnight or one o’clock in the morning. Yet instead of complaining the whole while I’d play my music softly and approach dish duty as much needed down-time. Of course walking along the water’s edge would be more appealing than running my fingers through the dirty dish water, but it is water nonetheless. And water does have a calming effect.

So what do I do now during dish duty? I reflect on the day’s events. I think about future plans. I dream up new ideas. I sing. I come up with cute things to write about. And of course, I wash the dishes. Doing dirty dishes has become less of a chore. Sometimes I look forward to it. For it is the one period of time during the day when I am not multi-tasking. I’m all alone—me, God and my dirty dishes. While I work on cleaning the dishes, God works on cleaning me. A sort of mental and spiritual ‘detox’ at the end of the day.

No, I don’t look forward to washing dishes every night (sometimes I’m just plain tired and want skip the cleaning for the bed). But most often my new attitude toward to dish-washing has made the task much more endurable and sometimes even enjoyable.


Copyright ©2005 by Anita S. Lane
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