Life's Plain, Common Work

I am not a woman who finds joy in doing the laundry. I am not a stay-at-home-mom who derives great pleasure from scrubbing toilets or mopping the kitchen floor. I'm not now, but I'd like to be. I'd like to be able to look at a sink-full of dishes and see a way to express my love to my family. I want to see the need for vacuuming and when it's done feel a real sense of accomplishment.

Recently, I have had glimpses of how important these seemingly simple things really are, and I want to embrace that. I find a lot of joy in creating, in finding ways to make things more beautiful. In my heart I know that creating an orderly home can fulfill my need for creativity too. I know it, but with a pile of laundry staring me in the face, in that moment, it's hard to realize it.

I found this poem over at Clover Lane and immediately loved it.

The best things in life are nearest:
Breath in your nostrils,
light in your eyes,
flowers at your feet,
duties at your hand,
the path of right just before you.
Then do not grasp at the stars,
but do life's plain, common work
as it comes,
certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

This "plain, common work" that I am doing for my family is the most important work that I can be doing. Creating a place where my family feels safe, creating a home where Kedar and I can teach our children the things that we feel are the most important; this is my most important work.

Surely, laundry will never be my favorite thing to do but I am working on looking at my day-to-day tasks with a different perpective. The perspective that the simple things that I do everyday make a difference in my own corner of the world. I am trying to build a sancutary and a refuge for my family. Nothing could be more important for me to do than that.