Vulnerable

I'm so excited!  We have finally started overhauling our laundry/mud room (wow, seriously, looking back at those pictures, the room already looks so much better).  We (mostly I) figured if we were going to reorganize it, we (mostly I) might as well make it pretty, which meant filling in the holes and painting the walls a lovely blue called December Sky.

So, while the Hubs and kids have been away (coming home today, yipee!), I've been disassembling our laundry room, spackling, and painting.  I love the color, but it's a little much to have that little room all blue, so we're going to be installing some white wainscot and trim on two (or maybe three) of the walls.  The accents are silver--it's going to be not just pretty, but gorgeous!

Don't you just love the color?  Well, you actually can't see it very well in this photo (especially with that shadow)--you'll just have to come see it for yourself before you make a judgement.

An interesting insight has come from this project.  The washer is still hooked up, just pulled away from the wall. All I would need to do to use it is plug it in and turn the water switch back to on. But the dryer vent didn't reach far enough to be able to leave it hooked up. In order to use the dryer, I would have to push it back into place, carefully lining up the vent on the dryer with the vent on the wall without bending either out of shape, seal the vent, and plug it back in.  And then, when I was done, I would have to unhook it all again and pull it away from the wall again in order to install the wainscot and trim (which I need to wait for Sawblock to help with).

I feel vulnerable with the dryer unusable. 

Which is really kind of strange, because if I need to dry something, I can just put it on the clothesline.  It might take a really long time to dry, what with the humidity and the rain and all, but it would dry, eventually.  And it's not like I even have a whole lot of people around right now who are making things dirty that would need to be washed and then dried. 

Isn't it interesting how we come to depend on these modern conveniences?  I so totally could get by without a dryer, but without one, I feel a little...lost.  Even though I don't need to do any laundry right now.  I know people who would be lost without their cell phones, or computers, or cars, or any number of things (even things that don't start with a c :), that are not, when you come right down to it, necessary.

It's just that, the dryer, it's a part of how I move through my days; it's a part of how I relate to the world.  It's part of my normal.  And being without it reminds me how easily my normal can be disrupted.  It's a bit unsettling.  If such a little thing can throw me for a loop, what happens when something big occurs?  Something like a brain tumor, perhaps?  Or a lost job?  Or a natural disaster?  Or an unexpected accident or death?

We know that most of what happens to us is out of our control, and while many of us say we love surprises, it's not really true.  We love good surprises, safe surprises.  But what we love most is being in control.

I take comfort in knowing that I am not in control, that I never really will be in control, that I don't have to try to be in control.  That makes it so much easier to turn all of my insecurities, all of life's uncertainties, all of my fears, all of my doubts over to the One who holds my life in His hands.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?    

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.    If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 

    But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.   Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25, 27-30, 33-34

And my dryer?  It'll be back up and running again in a few days, hopefully before everyone runs out of clean clothes.  As for the rest?  God will see me, all of us, through.