Saturday, July 11, 2009

Wash day revelations

I was about to start washing a load of clothes this morning when something on the agitator in the center of the washing machine caught my eye. I looked closer at the brownish mark and realized I needed to wash out my washing machine.

Residue had built up inside the fabric softener dispenser and turned into an unsightly gunk that was keeping the dispenser from draining completely. I fiddled with the dispenser until I was finally able to pull it apart. Peering down, I was horrified to find a thin layer of smelly water at the bottom. Triple yuck! How in the world could we expect to clean clothes in a stinky washer?

As I scrubbed the dispenser and the rest of the washing machine, it struck me there was a larger lesson here. It was more than just the old adage -- take good care of your tools and they will take care of you. Something bigger was beckoning.

I think it was this: What residue builds up in our lives when we go about our routines without taking them apart every now and then for closer inspection? Where do we let little things accumulate unnoticed until they turn stagnant?

Those seem to be good questions to ask on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

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