by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

On January 17th, I shared this little bit of domesticity on social media, and so many people enjoyed it I decided to post it here.

Last night, I finally put a load of laundry in the dryer that I had washed three times. Yes, three times. Not because it was that dirty, but because I didn’t put it in the dryer as soon as the load was done.

This is not because I forgot that the load was done. In fact, I opened the top of the laundry machine to remind myself that the load was done, and then walked past that laundry machine several times, willfully deciding not to put it in the dryer because there was already a clean load of laundry in the dryer that I needed to take out and sort. After walking past it enough times, I did forget about it.

The next day I returned to my basement to discover that this wet laundry now smelled, so I ran it through another wash. This time I did forget about it.

Today, I resolved this would be the day. I put some extra laundry scent booster and I ran that load for the third time. This time I emptied the dryer before the load was done. The clothes are now in the dryer and they smell fine.

Follow me, and you, too, can become a domestic goddess.

(Yes, that photo of my laundry in a bin has an Instagram filter over it. To make the floor look cleaner.)

One of my kind friends on social media thought I was heading for a spiritual metaphor with this post. So as not to disappoint him, I meditated on my laundry for a bit and discovered yes, there is a spiritual metaphor!

The clean laundry, sitting wet in the laundry machine, represents repentance.

The dryer represents confession.

Repentance cleans, but if you don’t also confess your sins, you will still smell their stench, even if you confessed them before (like that still full dryer). If you delay confession, you’ll end up repenting for the same sins over and over again, just like my repeated load, to avoid the stink.

The scent booster symbolizes … God’s grace and forgiveness!

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