Sabbatical, Day One: Triage-Free Laundry

I woke up early this morning, 4:40 a.m. to be exact. The jitters made it feel like the first day of school or something. July 1 begins a 12-month sabbatical from teaching and on-campus responsibilities at Luther Seminary. I'm actually still working on tying up loose ends in a project I've titled, "Preparing for Sabbatical," so today's work was not dramatically different from yesterday's. The day did hold one moment, however, that reminded me of the difference between sabbatical and "real life."

I started the day by putting a load of clothes in the dryer and taking a walk with the dog. When we got back, the clothes were dry. As I opened the dryer, I thought, "I could just fold these and put them away right now." And then I did that.

I didn't throw them back into the basket, sorting out only what had to be hung immediately to avoid ironing later. I didn't toss them all on the futon or the bed for folding later—"when there's time." I just finished the laundry task. The whole thing took maybe 6 or 7 minutes.

Now I've probably had that kind of time to fold laundry on other mornings before work, but I never think I have any time—for anything. How much of our days do we spend like triage nurses deciding between urgent tasks that require attention? Laundry is less important than sleep, which is less important than making breakfast, which is less important than meeting prep, which is less important than getting to class, and on and on. It was wonderful to fold handkerchiefs, bath towels, socks without having first navigated a maze of decisions about the relative urgency of the task.

One of the goals for this sabbatical is to figure out how to live a more sabbath-oriented life after it. What rhythms of work and rest might the year reveal to me that are sustainable even when meetings, students, classes, church presentations, and all the rest crowd back in? Future posts will take up the question of how busy I need to be, and why. For now, it is enough that I got my laundry folded and still had time for some other work that benefits more than just myself and my closest neighbor. It was a good start to sabbatical.

sabbatical

Comments

[Kim]

Happy sabbatical, Mary! I love laundry. But I miss being able to hang it out and fold it on the picnic table.

[Susan]

Love this! It reminds me of Kathleen Norris' chapter in "The Cloister Walk" entitled "Now Her Laundry's Done." There is something very meditative about doing some routine domestic tasks--for me it is folding laundry and washing dishes (but not cleaning the toilet or washing the kitchen floor--why some and not others?) Anyway--one of my favorite Sabbath-keeping activities was to go screen-free on Sundays. It is simply amazing to see how many more hours one seems to have when not distracted by Law and Order reruns and Facebook. The irony is that now I'm in seminary and can't seem to find that Sabbath peace. I will pray that you will find a sustainable way to celebrate a real Sabbat-ical when you return to the daily grind.

[Lindean]

Looking forward to hearing about your sabbatical adventures! Or non-adventures. :)