inspiration and the housework

Today I'm thinking about inspiration. About ordinary. About extraordinary. About how life gives us what we need, or rather, what we are open to.

I'm doing load after load of laundry right now. I can hear the dryer, the buttons on jeans and pants clinking against the metal walls. There is beef stew in the crock pot, filling the house with pleasant balsamic and potato aromas... an apple pie is waiting to be baked. Our goals for today have been met, books are being read here and there, snuggles are getting packed in when we can.

And through all this, I'm filled. Some days I look around and think "is this really it?" and I pout as I fold sheets and dry the umpteenth cup.

But with a simple shift, a simple change in perspective, I can look around and say "yup, this is it." This is the life. I can find extraordinary beauty in the way I have folded the purple cotton sheets. The crispness of the edges. The smooth curve where the fold lies. I can get excited about putting them away, because that means I'll be exchanging them with flannel sheets. My favorite. White with red snowflakes, signaling warmth. I can look over my books and be inspired to try new things, or find out that I'm not alone in something. An art project might be on the horizon, and there I can spread words and paint and feel like the world is at my fingertips. Creativity spouting out. And it is okay if no one ever sees it. This creativity and inspiration, sometimes it is okay to have an audience of one. To do these things with a happy heart, and an open mind, and rejoice in knowing that no matter what, it has made my day more pleasant to have gone through chopping, bathing, playing, reading, paying bills, folding... with joy.

Inspiration knows no boundaries. It can come in simple forms. It can come in complex forms. But as long as we're open to it, inspiration comes.