Chores or Blessings

How do we go from seeing housekeeping tasks as something we ‘have’ to do to seeing them as something we ‘get’ to do?

Making ends meet — Photo by iStockphoto

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Here’s another goodie from slow-good summer repost series.*

Happy clearing!

Ahhh…🏡

One of my favorite housekeeping tasks is hanging up the wash the old fashioned way — on a line — and breathing in its fresh, sun-kissed fragrance when I take it down.

Line dance — San Miguel de Allende, Mexico © Stephanie Bennett Vogt

Then comes the folding into compact little bundles (a la Marie Kondo) and putting it away.

A home for everything © Stephanie Bennett Vogt

Perhaps because I find the whole thing so sensory, and calming, and meditative, doing laundry in this way never feels like a chore.

Or maybe it’s a dance of perception, a theme that Mark Nepo explores in his poem, “Pirouettes,” (below), and this larger question it inspires:

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How do we go from seeing housekeeping tasks as something we have to do to seeing them as something we get to do?

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Let’s open up the conversation, shall we?

Tell us about a housekeeping task you love doing, and a task that feels like a burden. What makes one more enjoyable and nourishing than the other?

Ahhh…🙌🏼

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Pirouettes

Poem and “question to walk with” by Mark Nepo ¹

Some days, the simplest tasks
seem weighty and endless:
make the bed, tuck in the sheet,
make the coffee, stir, and drink,
find the bills, pay the bills.

Some weeks, the days blur:
get on the plane, get off the plane,
get in the car, get out of the car,
sign in here, sign out there.

Then, I got your email saying:
Isn’t this all a blessing?

We get to make the bed
and tuck in the sheet.
We get to make the coffee
and stir it and drink.

I emailed you back:
What’s the difference?

You called me up and said:
“Oh my friend, if we can just
keep falling down and getting up,
it all becomes a dance.”

A Question to Walk With: Describe a task that has been at one time a chore and at another time a blessing. How do you understand the difference? 

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*A word about reposts

In my experience with clearing journeys, there are benefits to circling back around: revisiting a concept, idea, or tool that may have inspired (or even mystified) us. As we change, so does our outlook and our ability to take in information in a new way. May that be so with this mini-series of reposts.

If you’re enjoying these visual recaps, please share, like, restack… and help us grow this spacious energy.

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In case you missed it…

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The Spacious Way Series

1. Shared by Mark Nepo on Medium — from his book of poems in progress, This Slow Quick Dance.