When my daughter was born three and a half years ago, I was pretty dedicated to using cloth diapers. From an environmental, cost-savings, and hygiene perspective, it seemed like the right choice. As a new stay-at-home mom, I had to learn how to slow down for the first time in my life. I was learning to be in the moment, taking delight in simple pleasures and taking in my surroundings in a vivid way. Just before getting pregnant I had started studying Miksang with Michael Wood - an approach to photography that focuses on the splendour of our immediate experience – a visual haiku if you will. I explored the art of miksang with fervour during this time. Hanging laundry, taking photographs, and watching my little girl explore the world will forever be grouped together in my memory as a time of my life when my mind was at its stillest, calmest, and most present. I hung loads and loads of laundry up in our backyard, revelling in the beauty of it, the methodical act of folding it, the satisfaction of clean, crisp linen.
Over the past year my relationship with laundry has taken a nose-dive. Was it the 50-60 hour work weeks that made any task at home feel like simply one more thing between me and sleep or me and a hot bath? Was it the pools of cat urine on the laundry room floor from our cat Guido (who is prone to urinary tract infections and always thinks peeing in a new location will take away the pain)? Was it the fact that my laundry machine has broken such that it stops half-cycle and I have to go back to the basement and slam the lid down in order to get it running again? Probably a combination of all of the above.
Yesterday that all changed. The weather in Toronto went up over 25°C and I could no longer ignore that I had at least seven loads of laundry to do and our whole family was starting to look a little shabby. I rewashed a load of laundry that had been sitting wet in the washer for – yes, I admit it – almost two weeks. I took my daughter to Canadian Tire and we picked out fresh new clothes pegs and went home to hang our first load. It was like falling in love all over again. The hanging, the pinning, the warm sun, the light spring air. I revelled in the uplifted mood it brought me as Mattea and I headed over to the store for our weekly Conscious Parenting Meetup – this week being run by Marlo Shaw – all about cloth diapers. We talked about the benefits of cloth diapers. Marlo handed around samples. I admitted that although Mattea had been out of daytime cloth diapers since the age of a year and a half, she still needs diapers at night and we have been using disposables for nearly two years. I fingered the sample diapers, the hemp, the bamboo, the organic cotton, and the textures brought back fond memories.
Last night, instead of pulling out a plastic disposable pull-up diaper covered in princesses and castles for Mattea, I pulled out an old cotton cloth diaper and a woollen aristocrat cover for her. After tucking her into bed I went outside and hung my third load of laundry for the day up under the moonlight. “I’ve missed you” I whispered to the laundry under the clear night sky.
What memories or significance does laundry hold for you, if any? Is there another daily or weekly chore that brings you a deep sense of satisfaction and peace?
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