More Than Ironing

Some tasks in life are simply chores: must-dos with little else going for them.

Ironing is like that. Yet I like it.

It's an incredibly simple, monotonous task. It would be very easy to become bored. But sometimes it's through those dull, repetitive tasks that our minds are able to expand. While our hands are kept busy in an occupation, we are free to think, ponder, imagine, process. Whatever our minds need to do.

My husband likes to tell how the concept for his current business -- the one that puts bread on our table and a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs -- was conceived during one hot summer day while he was mowing. Back and forth, up and down, row by row, cutting every last blade of grass in the lawn. From the outside, he appeared to be doing little more than nothing. Ahhh, but his mind was working overtime! The rest is history.

So it is (almost) with ironing for me. I may not have thought up a great business concept, but my mind wanders to story ideas, characters, relationships, experiences, things that are important and relevant in my life.

And, what's more: ironing is a great metaphor for the smoothing out of life's wrinkles. I feel instant gratification as I glide the hot, steaming iron over a field of wrinkles. What was unpresentable, chaotic, unkempt is "fixed," and swiftly. Such satisfaction!

I feel certain everyone has that one chore equivalent to mowing or ironing. The one we really don't mind doing, because it gives us time for the freedom of thought. What's yours?