I am looking forward to a doing a big heaping load of wash. 
How warped is this?!

I have been traveling for three weeks now and have not done a single load of laundry.
Ew.
I am a bit disgusted myself as I write that~
I’ve done the traveling thing; washing in the shower a few necessities and hanging to dry over the hotel shower curtain rod…

But not doing laundry isn’t my point exactly;
it’s the looking forward to doing laundry.

Now that is not something you hear very often….
Especially from a mom of four boys!
To be honest I am craving after a lot of mundane tasks and common place stuff right now:
Eating with a metal utensil…
from a non-disposable container…
Using a curling iron…
Wearing my slippers…
Curling up on a couch…
Cooking-even if just to scramble eggs for Patrick!
 
All things I take for granted regularly when home.
 
All things missed deeply when traveling.
I can’t help but draw a parallel in this craving and looking forward to~
I imagine God feeling that way about me. About every human.
Introduced to Him at birth through Catholic baptism, Sunday school and regular church attendance-
I was among those aware of Him;
taking for granted He was part of this world,
part of my life. 
 
I traveled through my growing up simply aware that He was a something, a someone, who was always there. 
Like my silverware, dishes, slippers and cozy couch~
He was just there. 
I never thought what it could possibly be like to not have Him just there….
like the washing machine…or silverware drawer. 
Always there.
 
yet life always had a craving; a longing; a ‘something missing’…
 
a ‘looking forward to’ in which I had no idea what I was forward looking to~
 
Then I went through a period of life-travel; 
traveling onto 
a new way of doing normal,
a new way of doing me. 
And in it I recognized and began to appreciate once again the ‘everyday’ and ‘common place’ that I’d been taking for granted.
And I began to look forward to getting home and finding it
embracing it
appreciating it. 
Doing a load of holy laundry!
 
Drawing me so far in that now, 
in this new way, this new ‘common place’
I never take for granted,
I’ll never be able to take for granted~
I’ll never be allowed to take for granted~
But only savor and relish the feel
~metal fork instead of plastic
~china bowl instead of cardboard
~cozy couch instead of pilled-up pillows on desk chair…
 
God relationship rather than God awareness.
 
He’s keeping me close by keeping me craving. 
He’s not risking my becoming complacent to His presence now that I’ve fully flung open and shouted through the walls of my heart,
‘I’m home!’ 
 
The delicious smell of Tide with bleach will not go unappreciated.
The tactile beauty of my Calphalon soup pot will be embraced anew.
My tender traveling toes will slide into cushioned slippers with delicious bliss. 
 
As the love and companionship of my God is each day is delighted in
and looked forward to~
 
My God is in each and every every day
~Reminding me of His pervading and ever-present position.
 
Never letting me fall into routine or take His presence for granted~
delighting in the work-dare I call it such-
He keeps me always craving after,
looking forward to
the little, under appreciated, often overlooked creature comforts of modern life.
 
And in the by and by of this not only better understanding His love and care for me, 
but also His determination
-with a small smirk of delight on His face I believe!-
to never let me get comfortable without appreciating the Comforter~
I might even do two loads. 
And fold it all….ahhhh….
I love my God.
in love. trish