Once a week or so Matt will follow me out to the back garden while I'm hanging that day's wash to dry. "You don't have to do this, you know," he says. And I do know. We have a dryer, which is surprisingly efficient in comparison to the loooong whirs of washing cycles. There's almost always something else I could be doing, or the sun might be nowhere to be seen, though the wind more than makes up for it. But for some reason, it's become a favourite ritual of our life here. I feel in sync with nature, like I'm mastering one tiny corner of the domestic arts.
And when the sun does shine and the line gets lifted towards a blue sky with a family-of-five's-worth of clothes and towels and blankets flying overhead... my soul feels pin-pricked by peace, tiny-dot rays of light filtering through.
You can read more about hanging it all out on the line at Cara Meredith's blog, Be Mama Be, for her #rituals series. Her voice is strong and hilarious and I'm honoured to bring a little bit of Irish weather her way.
PS. I'm also at Vital Magazine today talking about how God calls the unusual - or in my case, the crazy - to missions. And despite the crazy, the losses and the upheavals, we don't regret much. ;)