Love for Laundry and Love for God (one woman's account)

[mdgspencer]

“Love for Laundry: Folding
Hail Mary’s”

Laundry: a never-ending
task,
Looming over me, growing
beside me,
Requiring my time and lots
of energy.
How can a mother embrace
this job?
Quietly, I pray.
Folding my family’s clothes,
I think of them and of you,
Lord.
Thankful for this blessing;
The awesome privilege
of caring for them!
Dear Lord, please grant me
all of the graces I need to see
the hidden treasure in
housework and in caring for
my family!
Excerpted from Donna-Marie
Cooper O’Boyle’s book, “Grace
Café: Serving Up Recipes for
Faithful Mothering,” Circle Press

 

[Auntie_A]

Beautiful poem. It reminded me of my mom, a very literate teacher and mother of 10. She wrote and collected many things about a mother’s life and God.

On a different note with laundry, I remember hearing Mel Gibson describe sitting in his father’s office, talking with his dad but watching his mother outside the window. She, the mother of 12?, was walking in and out of the house many times, carrying loads of laundry to be hung up on the clothesline. He kept talking with his dad but was curiously engaged in watching his mom do her chores. At last, he saw her by a large pile of laundry and she sprinkled some liquid on it and struck a match, setting the entire pile on fire.

That story is a kind of poetry in a way. The poor woman was at her wit’s end and probably got little or no help with the constant barrage of dirty clothes. My father helped with laundry all the time and then we were expected to help keep the wash going as well. I wonder if poor Mrs Gibson had any help…