Can you find the gift in the boring?
“What, again?”
That’s what Gary Larson, creator of The Far Side, reportedly told his mother on the second day of kindergarten.
I can relate at least a dozen times a day, whether making beds or washing dishes or working out: “What, again?”
Matthew Sanford in his book, Waking, calls this a quiet death. The day we realize, for example, adult life is deeply repetitive.
Maybe that’s why they call it the grind.
The grind is a series of decisions, and the most important decision you’ll make is your attitude about what you’re doing right now.
When I remember to approach making a bed the way an artist approaches a canvas -- to really get into it for the sake of that and nothing else -- my brain goes out to play. What’s fun for my brain is solving problems, apparently. Because by the time I’m finished I have the answer to something I’ve been wrestling with. Maybe it’s the subtitle for a new book. Maybe it’s what to make -- er, assemble -- for dinner.
Whatever it is, it reminds me housework is as much meditation as anything else. It’s a lovely frame for the rest of life -- disguised as a mindless, boring task that was always anything but.
This makes me look forward to making my bed in the morning--something I never thought I'd say! Thanks for that :)
Thanks for beautifully articulating why people say they do their best thinking in the shower; it's the same idea, and one I, too, use to get through the everyday grind. Now, if I could just figure out a way to think/meditate while trying to process a new recipe so I don't forget a key ingredient (yup, that's happened more than once), I'd have this mastered!