The Zen of Laundry
Laundry. A relatively simple task, certainly not something that would cause any sort of deep, meaningful, introspective moments in life. Or so you would think. While doing laundry today I realized I have a lot of things that I just don't wear anymore and I asked myself: "Why am I keeping this things?"
A few things came to mind. First, memories - many of these items have a memory from an event to place that I visited and whenever I wear them I try and relive that memory. I am also a bit of a pack-rat, I never really throw anything away that I think I can either reuse or re-purpose later. My dad taught me, any t-shirt to old to wear just became a brand new shop rag! Regardless of how many new shirts that I get, I feel I can't possibly throw away any of the old ones, because you never know when you might need them!
Lastly, I hate being wasteful - I am sure there are folks out there who could use these clothes. I'll even put them in a "donate box", but somehow they will somehow teleport themselves back into my drawers!
Today I decided that sometimes it's healthy to let some of these old anchors go. Letting a t-shirt go will not take away any memories - in fact, in the act of letting it go I decided to write down some of the stories of how I got some of these shirts (random concerts, sports jerseys, etc.) These items basically became small muses for me to write about, and I think that is the most that I could possibly ask of them. Now I let some of them go, and perhaps they will help make memories for someone else. And I'll finally get some darn drawer space for all my socks!
(Close up of Landry Room #1, by Theresa (Mixed media on canvas))
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