14 Loads of Laundry
#169
Friend,
Imagine 14 loads of laundry piled high on your bed at 11:07 p.m., and all you want to do is go to sleep.
You can stay up folding and putting clothes away all night, and be exhausted. You can throw all the clothes on the floor and worry about it tomorrow—or some combination of the two.
Grief is like the 14 loads of laundry. You can put it off during the day, you can close the bedroom door, but sometimes when it shows up, it appears like the 14 loads of laundry, piled high at the most inconvenient time.
Grief is a lot like laundry: If not dealt with, it doesn’t go away and starts to smell, and even when you deal with it and think you’ve finished, you’ll face it again in a week.
Here’s the good news about grief (and laundry). While grief and laundry don’t go away, we do get better at both of them. Over time, we become more efficient at attending to what is in front of us and putting it where it belongs. We can even invite other people to help us sort, fold, and put away. It’s amazing how much better most tasks are when we invite other people to help.
Folding clothes can be a time of gratitude as you remember where you got this shirt, the adventures you’ve had in those jeans, and laugh at how that one t-shirt can have so many holes yet still be your favorite.
Over time, grief can also be a time of gratitude, allowing you to remember and relive what was and be thankful for helping you become who you are today.
Love,
Aaron
P.S. I have a few new subscribers, and so, welcome! These “Letters to a Weary Soul” are my attempt to communicate to people who find themselves won out, overwhelmed, and exhausated by life and by the world. I try to post 1 or 2 of these a week, and on Fridays for my paid subscribers, I send “Red Letters to a Weary Soul,” as I am slowly and carefully working through the words of Jesus. (We’re about halfway through Matthew.)
Thanks for joining us.