Nothing Profound, Just The Ordinary01.06.12
Today I marveled over the technological contrasts in my daily life. As I hung up my laundry around 9 this morning in the frigid morning air, I enjoyed the blue sky laced with wispy clouds. Unlike the Japan seacoast, or even Seattle, winters here are generally bright with fair weather dominating rather than dark. I guess that’s one of the reasons I have a hard time justifying tossing the clothes in the dryer rather than hanging them up unless the wet laundry mountain is too big or I’m really, really tired or busy. The other reason is that sunlight makes things white. My washer only takes cold water (really cold in the winter!) and even adding bleach doesn’t seem to get out the grunge. But if I hang up my whites out in the light of that beautiful, glowing globe, little by little the grunge (and even stains) fade into oblivion. I like to imagine that as I soak in the love and life of God, little by little my grunge and grubbiness will fade away too, leaving me clean and fresh and fit to bring warmth or softness to another’s life.
On the other end of the tech spectrum is my iPhone which allows me to do much more than I know how to do almost anywhere, anytime. Last night as I lay in my bedroom (temperature hovering around 34 F) I listened to the January 5th podcast of Daily Audio Bible in Japanese (my New Year’s intention), checked my email, logged onto fb and saw a friend had responded to my random plea for a cage for our suddenly acquired hamster, and sent off a note to someone I haven’t seen in 30 years. What a strange and wonderful world of contrasts I live in.
Sometimes technology has its advantages but some simpler things – like hanging wash out in the sun – can be so soul sustaining. I miss that sunshine smell in my towels and sheets here in Chicago.
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Posted by Ronna on 12/13/09 January 7th, 2012 at 4:43 AM
You were remembered with gratitude as I hung wash that morning!
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Posted by Andrea Johnson on 12/13/09 January 7th, 2012 at 10:03 AM
Hi Andrea,
I was glad to see your post, because I had noted the lack of them and had begun to wonder if you and yours were okay fine.
I am hoping there was a typo in it. Now I am all in for stewardship and living frugally, but did you really mean to say that it was 34 degrees inside your house? Yikes.
Leonard
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Posted by Leonard S on 12/13/09 January 17th, 2012 at 7:29 PM
We are fine. Thanks for caring. I’ve been writing and musing about many things but most are not a good fit for this blog. Yes, I did mean 34 degrees celsius, but to clarify, we do have some room heaters which we turn on during waking hours so it is usually not bad. Very few homes have central heat or insulation, so only high traffic rooms are heated when in use. Japan does have a lot of cool conveniences like heated toilet seats, really deep hot baths, low blanket covered tables with heating units, and newer, more expensive homes even have heated floors- not us though. 🙂
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Posted by Andrea Johnson on 12/13/09 January 19th, 2012 at 7:46 PM