The Laundry

In Greek mythology, the gods cursed Sisyphus.  His fate was to spend eternity pushing a heavy rock up a hill, only to have it roll to the bottom again as son as it peaked the top.  A lifetime of labor never finished.  Each end only a new beginning.

As I’ve pondered this story, my inner being struggles against the devastating frustration it produces in me.  What would I think about if I were Sisyphus?  What would I brood on?  Obsess over?  What would I learn?

What was Sisyphus’s relationship with the rock?  What about the ground he continued to tread?  Did he learn and apply if he was never to have other circumstances to which he might apply his hard-learned lessons?  What transgression earns such a punishment?

I’ve noticed that our so-called “blue-collar” jobs in the U.S. are akin to Sisyphus’s toil.  Clean a toilet to have it immediately soiled.  Assemble a factory product to have another brought to you on the conveyor belt.  Flip a burger.  And another.  And another.  These jobs are generally compensated less than jobs with changing projects, goals, and objectives.  Yet they are both indispensable to our society and also bear Sisyphus's curse.

Monotony.  Was this Sisyphus’s punishment?  Is monotony a negative state, something punitive?  Something that yields low fiscal rewards, low privilege in our society.  Boredom.

I have three laundry hampers in my house.  The children stuff their dirties in the upstairs when they extract them from the floor in their weekly room-cleaning.  James and mine overflows with towels, sheets, and large clothes.  But the end game for each of the two is when their contents pour into the confluence of the laundry room hamper; for it is this mighty river that finally flows into the ocean of the actual washing machine.  I empty the last of its contents into the machine, smile contentedly, push start, then return to the kitchen.  During my absence, Collin spilled his juice.  “Get a rag, love,” I sigh.  He wipes at the spill, then trots the rag into the laundry room, and drops it in the hamper.  The rock rolled back down the hill.

One evening I rushed to get the laundry switched in a small window before putting the kids to bed.  If I could just push the rock a little farther up the hill my day would somehow feel a bit more productive.  Jammie-clad, Caroline and Collin scampered in, “I wanna help, I wanna help!”  Shit.  Caught.  They’ve been “helping” all day and I just want to push the rock up quickly by myself, alone with my thoughts, without answering questions, or explaining how to do it in minute detail.  “Mommy, I can’t reach the bottom of the hamper.  Can you hold me upside down?”  “Look!  The water’s like a waterfall!  Can I put my hand in it?”  “Can I please please please pour the soap in?”  “Mommy, where does the orange triangle point on the dial point?  I forget.”  A smile trickles into my malaise as I sit down to watch them work.  They love to push the rock and never once think about its beginning or end.

What would Sisyphus have done if someone joined him in the monotony?  Might he have felt possessive about his rock, his task?  Might he have naughtily believed none should join him because they couldn’t do it as well, as fast, as thoroughly?  What if he allowed the help, company, tutelage?

Buddhism asserts that everything is always changing.  If I sit in a chair and do absolutely nothing, change still happens.  Eventually the chair will break down, my body will break down, the environment around me will alter.  According to this, Sisyphus’s trip up the hill would have never been exactly the same, no matter how repetitive it seemed.  Each time the hill would wear a bit underneath the rock.  Each time his body would grow stronger.  The scenery around him would slowly change.

So maybe monotony is a choice.  Monotony is closing my mind to the miniature details obscurely hidden in the redundancies of life.  Would laundry change if I saw each load as distinct, different, laden with unexplored possibility?  Brother Lawrence found mystical riches of divine knowledge in the drudgery duties of the kitchen, garden, and soapy bucket.  Maybe it is here that busy hands allow freedom for the mind to grasp God’s deepest truths.

bulk buying and backyard: conclusions

we closed our bulk buying and backyard challenge a bit ago, and thus also ended the revolting and gnashing of teeth from my household.  we farmers missed our cheese!  but we survived, lost a few pounds, and felt much healthier as a result of our mostly plant-based diet.  here’s a sample of one of our days of eating:

breakfast: granola, milk (rehydrated), dried cranberries & raisins

snack:  popcorn with nutritional yeast, cashews

lunch:  brown rice (with illicit soy sauce), raisins, dates, green peppers, peanuts

snack:  rice pudding, more nuts and dried fruit

dinner:  frittata with peppers, tomato, onions, & swiss chard, salad with cranberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil, bread machine bread

dessert:  chocolate covered pretzels

i did cheat in a few places, such as the soy sauce.  i used a bottled asian sauce in stir-fry and pre-packaged yeast for bread.  and the toddler still drank organic whole milk from a carton.

a few thoughts on the advantages of eating in such a way:

-          health – we undoubtedly increased our nutrition level.  we ate predominately whole foods, and mostly plant-based.  this decreased our cholesterol intake and bad fats.  protein stayed high through nuts and peanut butter.  our sugar intake decreased because who has time to make cookies every day?  and oh my sweet ice cream….it was good to have her back.

-          quality of food – fresh?  whole?  homemade and home-grown?  what’s not to love!  everything did taste quite good.

-          time – i noticed a distinct decrease in my disposable time during the week.  i spent much more time on meals, due in large part to the picking, gathering, washing, spinning, chopping of vegetables.

-          money – this was a swing gain.  your savings from bulk purchasing depends on what kind of food you buy normally.  we saved oodles on produce.  i usually buy conventional grains and ingredients at aldi, a discount grocery store; i bought organic and, often local ingredients from bulk.  i probably spent about the same amount, but got a much higher quality product.  but i spent significantly more on processed/prepared foods, like snack crackers, gummy bears, etc.  all in all, I spent about 40% more on groceries for the week.

-          packaging – no comparison.  we hardly threw away anything for the week.  waste was negligible, and energy used to deliver it to the store decreased.  this was by far the greatest advantage.

so i’ve been thinking about how to incorporate some of these principles as standards in our grocery habits.  here are a few:

-          continue to purchase locally-grown goods from bulk bins.  for us, these include popcorn, flour, cornmeal, honey, and a few others.

-          try to make my own prepared foods, like granola, snacks, and bread.  

-          subsist from our garden in the summer.  preserve foods by freezing and canning for the rest of the year.

-          be conscious of eating foods produced near me, if possible.  even if not locally, i’m trying to be aware of distance.  for example, we chose to stop buying mangoes because of the distance they have to travel to indiana.  (this should probably apply to bananas, too, but i’m just not there yet!)

-          view all containers as potential for bulk food storage.  anyone know a pattern to make bulk flour bags?

let me hear from you…  what do you buy in bulk?  any simple things you make at home? 

our next challenge to tackle – milk fresh from the cow.  stay tuned for more…..

backyard and bulk

we've returned from a delightful vacation and i'm eager to tackle our next challenge.  backyard produce and bulk bin buys.  come monday july 8th, we'll spend five days eating only what has grown in our own garden (plus eggs from our lovely hens) and offerings from the bulk buying section of our neighborhood grocery co-op - bloomingfoods.

today our garden offers us some early tomatoes, green peppers, salad greens, swiss chard, and an occasional blueberry or two that escapes our toddler's quick grasp off the bush. bloomingfoods provides an abundance of bulk options.  you know, those bins of food with the scoops/tongs, little twisty ties, and golf pencils?  shopping these bins offers a number of advantages.  first, your cost is much less because the store can buy them in bulk.  this savings is passed along to you.  also, the decreased packaging means less volume, and thus, less fossil fuels for shipping.  additionally, the decreased packaging leads to less waste (even recycling) created.  check out this L.A. Times article for more discussion on bulk bin shopping.  here are some of the delicious items available:
- flour
- sugar
- dried fruit
- oats
- pasta
- vinegars
- oils
- peanut butter
- pasta
- tea/coffee
even animal crackers and m&ms!  i can buy powdered cow milk as well as soy milk for some of our dairy desires.  right now old spaghetti sauce and pickle jars litter my counter top, filled with ingredients awaiting our recipes next week.

but i'm already jonesing for the cheese we'll be missing.  and ice cream.

do you have any favorite recipes made from few ingredients you could pass our way?

many of you have offered quite reasonable barriers keeping you from participating in this challenge.  i applaud your desire!  here are a few iterations that might be more do-able, if you're interested:

- purchase your week's produce from a local farmers' market
- buy 5 items from bulk bins that you usually buy prepackaged (examples: pasta, flour, dried fruit, candy)
- make something from scratch that you normally buy (examples: bread, granola, salad dressing)
- make 1 meal without any processed foods

be sure to tell me how it goes!
and enjoy.

sol mates challenge: closing thoughts

tonight’s sunset closes our week of living by the sun’s cycles.  we chose challenges we know we can’t sustain on a constant basis.  but we hope to learn principles for simple living that we can incorporate regularly.  this week did just that.  we found the sunset part to be the greatest challenge,  and our week even spanned the summer solstice!  but here are some important lessons i hope to weave into my  everyday tapestry:

1)       waking early is worth it.  it centers me.  i have more emotional availability for the needs in my day.  starting by my own accord (rather than in response to the waking needs of a child) is an important and symbolic act of self assertion for me.  once centered by morning peace, then i can be more healthfully available to the needs of others.  these outside needs can guide the rest of the day with less damaging cost to myself.

2)      i did less this week.  and no one seemed to suffer!  i kept from heaping chores, to-do’s, hopes, expectations in to the “me-window” at the end of the day.  i went to sleep with more peace.

3)      i got more sleep!

4)      james and i paid the greatest price for this challenge.  we lost most of our connecting time at night.  he leaves for work before 7:00am, so we didn’t gain much in the morning.  we miss it!

resolved: we will retire earlier (though not 9:30!), and continue waking with the sun.  we will seize the peace and simplicity awarded by more rest.

 

 

next challenge…..

this is my personal favorite!  for five days, we will eat only what can be purchased from the bulk bins at our co-op grocery store or what we grow in our own backyard.  the bulk bins offer a plentiful variety of dry goods, including powdered milk.  we anticipate blueberries, tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, and onions to be among the foods available from our garden.  our lovely hens will rescue us with their plentiful eggs.

i look to friends and family for help with this…..  what staple foods will i miss, and how can we substitute?  should we allow ourselves preserved food from earlier in the growing season?  what killer recipes can you share that use simple, whole food ingredients?  send em my way!

sol mates....in the rain

quiet rain brought a darker than usual tuesday morning on this day 2 of the sol mates challenge.  nevertheless, i rose with the hidden sun and slipped peacefully into the stillness around me.

yesterday i found myself eagerly awaiting the 9:15 sunset.  maybe it was simply exhaustion from our busy weekend.  but possibly it was something more nuanced.  you see, it was like i once again had a bedtime dictated to me by someone else.  like when i was a kid and my parents spoke the dreaded words..."time for bed!".  by the time our kids were asleep, my 9:15 bedtime left me with little margin for myself.  but even still, there was a freedom that came from an obligation to sleep.  it somehow relieved me of the pressure to cram all that i need or want to accomplish interruption-free into the small window before i retire for the night.  rather than falling into bed feeling under-accomplished and tightly-wound, i somehow just felt finished.  simply finished.

sol mates: keeping company with the sun

my husband and i have chosen “simply living” as the door sign over our string of challenges this summer.  our quest to live more simply, justly, sustainably, faithfully may in fact just be learning how to actually live.  truly.  completely.  simply.  thus, we embark on our quest to simply live.

my children have two good friends in the sky: luna (moon) and sol (sun).  we look to our friend sol for guidance in our first simply living challenge.  we will sleep while sol hides himself from us, and wake while his face shines on our patch of ground.  we begin Monday morning June 17^th at 6:19 am, and then close the challenge at sunset on Friday June 21^st, around 9:15.

as it turns out, we actually weren’t the first to have this idea.  our internal circadian rhythm follows this schedule.  our bodies are programmed to become sleepy as light diminishes, then wakefulness triggers as light increases.  modern society ceased its attentiveness to this natural cycle with the entrance of electricity.  “the current” (as my grandma sara called it) manufactures light on demand any time in the 24-hour cycle.  we have thus moved both socially and physically from this natural rhythm.

so what will happen when we resynchronize ourselves with the natural circadian rhythm?  are there benefits beyond a decreased electric bill?  will we feel the impact of this synchronization in a mere week?

and the most important question….do we wake our sleeping children at 6:19 in the morning??

share your thoughts, or join us in this first simply living challenge!

summer challenges

i glide into the easy ways of summer with energy for self-renewal and petite life tweaks.  for summer 2013, our family will embark upon a few mini-quests to hopefully help us live more justly, sustainably, and simply.  we often ask, “i wonder if we could _______?”  no, it would be too hard.  no, it would change our lives too drastically.  no, it would cut us off from things and people we love.  but these conversations have led us to these mini-quests.  what if we tried them for just a short period of time?  most of these challenges are not sustainable for us in the long run.  but we hope to gain some insight and small change from committing ourselves to them for a short stint.  for these challenges, a week equals five days.  forgive my loose use of the term “week” from here on out.
 
we have a few we’re already eager to try, but I’m looking for suggestions.  can you think of any week-long experiments that might make us more just, simple, sustainable, self-aware, hallowed people?  here’s what we’ve got so far:

-          up and down with the sun week

inspired by Thoreau at Walden Pond, this week we will rise with the sun and sleep with the sun.  the goal of this week is to allow our bodies to rest more and synchronize with the natural cycles of light.  in short, more sleep. 

-          bulk bin/backyard week

my personal favorite, this week we will eat only what can be obtained in our backyard or bought from the bulk bins at our local co-op grocery store. fortunately, this grocery store has extensive and well-stocked bulk bins.  we’re planning this one for the height of our backyard garden production.

-          car-free week

5 days, no driving.  chock-full of well-planned kids’ activities, good books, outside projects, and a well-stocked pantry, we will hunker down and stay home (with the exception of emergencies, of course).  we have delightful friends and neighbors nearby; short walks should help us maintain congeniality within our own walls.

-          internet-free week

not quite “unplugged,” but what will happen when we take out Craig’s List, Ravelry, and frenetic email-checking?  i’ll let you know!

 

i’m looking for input.  can you suggest other mini-quests?  changes to these?  what will i miss the most?  what will be the challenges?  outcomes?  would you like to try any of these with us?

stay tuned for more detailed posts as we embark on these ventures.  i’ll share the dates, pre-week prep, goals, and reflections.