From the Bottom of the Basket

Years ago I knew a woman who told me that she had decided to reach down to the bottom of her laundry basket and do all her laundry.

I mean ALL her laundry.

Not just the daily things, but those weird little pieces of fabric we put aside to do "later." Do you know what I am talking about? For me that would be odd-stiched potholders or little colored blankets that I am afraid will run or be ruined if they are thrown in with all the rest of the load. I keep them aside to do them "eventually."

The woman told me that when she got to the very bottom of her basket she found a pair of hot pants that she had set aside to wash sometime in the previous decade. That story kind of haunted me for a while, and I resolved right there and then never to let little pieces of fabric go unwashed for more than a year (or so...) However, that image of things just thrown to the side and saved for later has never left me.

I think we all do that. Maybe not with laundry, but with bills, letters to write, issues we need to work out with people, etc. You know, the stuff we set aside because we always have more pressing things to do. And, more frankly, the stuff we set aside because it's just too hard to do, and we want to keep avoiding it year after year--like the hot pants.

Of course, we'll get back to them later, right? Well, many times I do get them later. But unfortunately, there ARE a few things in my basket that just never seem to rise to the top. I just keep pushing them down as new stuff comes streaming in.

Changing households and states every few minutes like I am doing has caused me to look at that basket idea again. It seems that I have so little time in one place or with one set of people, (or one set of crises,) that I can't push the hard things down. I have to do them all right now. It's strange and painful doing this because I am so comfortable with my avoidance system. There are so many things I don't want to look at or deal with. Yet, the truth is, the one thing I really have no time for right now is the overfilled basket. The only option I have before me is the one I've avoided: dealing with these things one by one.

If you think of me, pray that I will adjust to this new system of digging down to the bottom of the basket , dredging things up and finishing with them. Because sometimes the only way out, is through.

I think it's called Reality.