That's Just Women's Work

Did I get your attention?

A small, simple 90-page book has found its way into my home, and I've gladly made a space for it on my bedside table.  It goes by the name of The Quotidian Mysteries:  Laundry, Liturgy, and Women's Work by Kathleen Norris.

Here's a small sample.  You'll see why I love it.

"God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things.  But this is not because God is a great Cosmic Cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us--loves us so much that the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life.  It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is "renewed in the morning" (Ps 90:5), or to put it in more personal and theological terms, "our inner nature is being renewed every day" (2 Cor 4:16)."

Bring me to my knees so I might wash the floor in that presence.

I actually love the rhythm, the movement, and pace of this work--I have a dishwasher, but I don't use it.  I'll trade the mop for a bucket and rag.  I love snapping beans.  Crochet.  The small, simple signs that say I was here, and it was full of peace.  Slowness.  A job, a seemingly small, unpaid job done well--that my whole soul was a part of it, in fact that it felt calmed pulling one apricot after another from the branch.

To grow, to mother, to cook, to sing, to sew, to stitch one note, one word after another--it's so simple.  And I get it.  I really get it.  I was made for this.