As I spent my Friday afternoon before mid-winter break at the local laundry mat, I stared at the time on the washing machine that read 09 minutes left. Nine minutes until I would take the tangled, wet pieces of cloth and throw them into a fifty pound limit dryer, then proceed to wait longer. I sat and gazed as the speed of the washing machine increased every few intervals. Then, I started to relate the clothes to my thoughts, and maybe even just life in general.

Clothes live together, they’re torn up and sewn back together, destroyed and reused, dirtied then rewashed. Sounds similar to how people live, or how others are treated, I suppose. Then again, they could easily be thoughts. Clothing that is. Feelings, emotions, and everything else that stresses us out is jumbled up in our heads, and sometimes they disperse, but not as often as we would hope they would. But when they do get released, they’re washed up by judgments or understandings, then either forgotten or spit back out in another context.

On the other end of the spectrum, we lay in bed at night going over countless flaws, mistakes, wishes, and stress scenario’s in which usually never get folded away into some storage space. But, what for? In the end, if we stress about silly mistakes and ‘could have’, ‘would have’, ‘should have’ thoughts, we may never reach happiness. There needs to be a point in time for when we take these internal debates and wring out the negativity so our minds can rest.

So, back on track, after the wrinkly clothes sit in the basket, at its final destination, we sit there without unraveling the truth, without forgiving, without forgetting, and just letting things be. Accepting a matter may, or may not even be a factor within this avoidance. Once you’re ready to flatten out the crinkles and folds, then you’re prepared to finally store them away, at least until another occurrence. It’s unfortunate for some people though, because not everyone can wait a little over a week to get their laundry done out of home…some actually experience this contemplation more often (machine owners).

I bet this will make you think a little longer after shutting the lid on your first load..

 

Listen to Suds In The Bucket by the ever so flawless, Sara Evans.

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