Photo Credit: Kevin_P from morgueFile.com |
The countdown is officially on with literally one
handful of summer days left for the children in this household. In our grand
effort to squeeze out a few more drops of fun, we’ve managed to fit in some
swimming and fishing at one of our very favorite spots…Port O’Connor, Texas .
One day last week, after the girls swam and my son
hooked a nice redfish, I draped their drippy clothes out on the line. My parents
hung a clothesline between their bay house and a pecan tree and it’s perfect
for towels, swimsuits, and a lucky fishing shirt or two.
There’s always a nice breeze by the water (a humid one,
but a breeze nonetheless), so I sat
down for a moment to soak it all in.
As I watched the clothes sway back and forth, I got lost in remembering
a poem I had recently read:
A clothesline was a news forecast to
neighbors passing by,
There were no secrets you could keep when clothes
were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link for
neighbors always knew,
If company had stopped on by to spend a night or two.
For then you’d see the “fancy sheets”
and towels upon the line,
You’d see the “company table cloths” with intricate
design.
The line announced a baby’s birth to
folks who lived inside,
As brand-new infant clothes were hung so carefully
with pride.
The ages of the children could so
readily be known,
By watching how the sizes changed you’d know how much
they’d grown.
It also told when illness struck as
extra sheets were hung,
Then nightclothes and a bathrobe too haphazardly were
strung.
It said, “Gone on vacation now” when
lines hung limp and bare,
It told, “We’re back” when full lines sagged with not
an inch to spare.
New folks in town were scorned upon if
wash was dingy gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows and looked
the other way.
But clotheslines now are of the past
for dryers make work less,
Now what goes on inside a home is anybody’s guess.
I really miss that way of life- it was
a friendly sign,
When neighbors knew each other best by what hung on
the line.
~Author Unknown
A simple clothesline says so much, doesn’t it? Of
course, these days we have facebook, twitter, and pinterest and we know EXACTLY
what folks are doing…and it’s NOT laundry!
Ha ha ha! Only kidding, only
kidding!
I also ran across another short clothesline poem by
Sylvia Spencer and part of it goes like this:
It gets very heavy when it starts to rain, this is
the time it feels the strain.
With the weight of the water upon its back, it sure feels heavy and ready to crack.
The sun comes out just in time, to save the life of the poor clothesline.
With the weight of the water upon its back, it sure feels heavy and ready to crack.
The sun comes out just in time, to save the life of the poor clothesline.
I’m not certain of the poet’s intent, but I read a
little deeper into this slice of her poem. Can’t we be a little like that clothesline
as we take on more and more of life’s rain?
We saturate ourselves in droplets of worry, trickles of stress, and
drips of anxiety each and every day.
After awhile, our burdens are too heavy to bear. Even the strongest of clothespins cannot
withstand the pull. However, if we’d just
let the “Son” in, the weight would become amazingly lighter as He absorbs
life’s rain. As the sun can save the life of a poor clothesline, I’m certain that
the Son can save us too.
While we’re on the subject, what types of things
might drench our spirits? For those of us who worry for the sake of worrying,
there are many things that soak our lines – too many to list really. Luckily, there is “The
Worrywart’s Prayer Book” by Allia Zobel Nolan that we can turn to. I recently shared a few of Nolan’s words with
a good friend of mine. Here goes:
“TODAY is the tomorrow that you worried about and…all
is well.” (Gotta
love that!)
“Hair graying?
Chin sagging? Wrinkles around the
eyes? Face it, for most people, losing our looks is
no ride in the park. But, for
worrywarts, it’s as though our one and only friend is leaving for the coast,
and we’re trying every trick in the book to make her stay.”
“Oh my goodness, we fret, our foreheads look like
tire treads. And oh my gosh, we moan, our skin is drier
than an empty canteen. We’re sagging
here and puffing out there. We’re
jiggling here and drooping down there. Our
heads are balding while our upper lips can grow enough hair for a small wig.” (Please be laughing as hard as I am over
here!)
“And those mirrors that used to be friends? Well, they’ve turned on us. And no matter
how many times we check ourselves out at the bathroom sink or in the
reflections of store windows, it’s always the same: we don’t recognize the person we see. It’s enough to make us call 911.”
“‘A stranger’s invaded my body,’ we’ll report. ‘And I don’t know what she’s done with me.’ No matter
what we do, inevitably, earthly beauty fades.
And fretting about trying to stop it is as futile as trying to stop a
bud from turning into a leaf, or day turning into night.”
“We’d be better off focusing on what we think the
purpose of this stage of our lives is all about. God is trying
to remind us that the things of the flesh are transient, and we’d better get
our spiritual affairs in order.”
“After all, our purpose here is not to win eternal
beauty, but eternal life. The Lord is interested in our soul, so let’s
concentrate all of our efforts on making it as desirable as possible. Let’s put on the creams of forgiveness to
make it soft and subtle, the make-up of love to cover our rough spots, and a
radiant garment of faith to make us beautiful in His sight.” (Ooooh
– so good!)
This last little story is about flooding our time
with worries of yesterday. I thought it
was worth sharing as well…
“If a stranger tried to rob us of our todays by
forcing us to think about yesterday, we’d probably put up a big fight. Yet when the
stranger turns out to be us, we wallow in the past wantonly and we seldom try
to stop ourselves.”
“The past is something we cannot change. It’s kaput, over, done with, finito. The smart way
of dealing with it is to accept it, learn from it, then drop it like a hot
shot. Otherwise, it can hold us captive
for hours or even days, as our thoughts pull up a chair with worry, guilt,
regret, and their sisters, ‘I should have done this’ and ‘I should have done
that.’ Then, they have a grand ole time
gabbing about what might have been.”
“While this party continues long after we can gain
any lesson from it, we lose out. All the good things God has planned for us in
the present slip by unnoticed, without so much as a how-do-you-do.”
“Worrying about the past is not only a time-waster,
but it’s also like questioning God’s plan for us.” (Who am I to question His Plan for
me? Certainly He can see down the road
so much farther…)
So, to wrap it up,
let’s not drag our clothesline down with things soaked in all that is life-draining.
Life’s rain can
be life-giving, but only if we invite the sun, um, Son, to do His part, too!
What great reflections.....thanks for the reminder to focus on eternal life instead of eternal beauty.....
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