Monday, December 22, 2014

Spiritual Housekeeping

The house is in chaos! I need to clear the beds (yes, plural) of ironing because 1) people are coming to stay for Christmas and 2) the ironing mostly consists of the bedlinen they will be sleeping in.  

On Desert Island Discs the other day the Archbishop of Canterbury revealed that he prays when doing the ironing.   I usually just listen to the Archers but I often use the time to ruminate, to sort stuff out in my head, to think things through.  

The very act of taking a mangled pile of laundry and creating neatly folded order is so therapeutic - not to mention a good long term investment.  If I've ironed those sheets and I have put them in their proper piles in the airing cupboard I don't have to then wrestle with them all, ruining all my neat piles until I find the right size for the right bed - so making beds also becomes an easy job.  

And the only thing nicer than a bed made with crisp, ironed bedlinen is getting into a bed made with crisp, ironed bedlinen.   I love making up the beds for the kids' visits and even though they're all adults now, I hope that as they snuggle down to sleep they feel their mother's loving embrace in the comfort of a well made bed!  

Tell me I'm not alone in this!

So Christmas is coming and I've got gifts to wrap, ginger biscuits to bake, the house to decorate and ironing to do.  All jobs that will help infuse the house with a feeling of welcome, love and of being Home.  

That is my prayer.

Warm wishes, dear reader, for a joy-filled Christmas and peaceful 2015.

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