On Saturday Morning, Facing the Laundry After Sleeping In

On Saturday morning I opened my eyes and it was past ten. It had been a while since I'd slept without an alarm, but before feeling rested, the first thing I thought was, "Already this much of the day is gone." It felt as if the weekend had shrunk by a day.

Lying in bed, I counted what I had to do today. Laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, a few replies I hadn't written, and one phone call I'd put off during the week. Each one was no big deal, but thinking of them all at once already wore me out. The weekend I had been waiting for in order to rest had somehow turned into the day I had to cram in everything I hadn't managed on weekdays.

When I got up, the laundry basket in front of the bathroom was overflowing. Socks and shirts piled up since last week had risen like a small mountain. I just stood there looking at it for a long time. I didn't know where to begin. The clock kept moving in the meantime, and standing still made me feel oddly lazy.

The truth is that on weekdays I hardly even noticed this basket. After work I was too busy washing up and lying down. Only on the weekend did everything left undone show up at once. For the first time, I thought it might not be only because I was lazy. I had simply had no room to look after the laundry while getting through the week.

Permission to do one thing at a time

I crouched in front of the basket and opened still().

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 (WEB)

At first, "all things" felt heavy on a day like this. It sounded as though I were meant to finish everything on today's list. But when I read it again, my eyes stayed on "through Christ who strengthens me." It didn't sound like a call to squeeze out my own strength. It sounded like a sentence that begins from the side that receives strength. Reading this verse doesn't shrink today's list. The basket is still there, and so is the list. Still, I wanted to read it as saying that my share today is not everything, but the one thing in front of me, and that the strength for that one thing is enough.

I put just one load into the washer, without sorting by color. When I pressed the button, I heard water filling up. Listening to it, I sat by the window and drank a glass of water. While the machine ran, I looked outside. Across the way, someone was hanging a blanket out on a balcony. Thinking that everyone was spending a similar Saturday, I felt a little less lonely. Whether to run a second load, or when to go grocery shopping, I decided to settle once this load was done. And it would be fine not to run it at all.

Today's breath — Pause what you're doing for a moment and, letting the tension drop from your shoulders, breathe out slowly once.