Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

The Ahh-Haa Moment

I like to wash dishes by hand, even though I own a dishwasher.

This must have to do with washing things, with water and soap. Maybe it has its basis in baptism, ablutions, or whatever...It is inside each religion, this cleansing with water, getting dunked in water, and all other rituals in water. It possibly has something to do with cleansing from primal fears or releasing the soul from some unnamed chains that hold it down.

While I do the washing, I begin developing a whole new relationship with my thoughts. They aren't changed at all, but they are just thoughts put on hold. I don't have to judge them, act on them, or do anything about them. I let them come and go like fluffy white clouds in the sky that are there, which I let pass or ignore.

This is so different from my everyday multitasking life, imploding with bottlenecked to-do lists. Those won't change, but doing one thing only by really concentrating on every step of it releases the tension, and I find the solutions to most things suddenly surfacing inside my mind, just as soon as I start drying my hands afterwards.

Washing the dishes by hand is my ritual of sorts. For this ritual, I pick up one dish first and take an extra second to brush it, while feeling the motions of my arm from side to side, then I rinse the crud off. Next, I reach for my small sponge to soap the dish in circular motions. After that, I hold it under running water, feeling the water's warmth, feeling the suds leave, feeling the squeaky cleanness of the dish as if I and the dish were one and the same. I gently place the dish on the drying rack, thinking only of the storyline of dishwashing, and how I let all other thoughts sail away.

After my introductory dish, I start with the rest, treating the entire load as one dish. Every item in the load is brushed and scrubbed of leftovers, then they're soaped and set aside. Afterwards, they are rinsed one by one and placed on the rack.

Washing dishes by hand takes me far away from any nagging thoughts, replacing them with casual reflections. I don't talk at all while I am so engrossed, while I am much slower and much more grounded.

When I am deeply absorbed in washing dishes, all I hear is the silence within me. The silence that keeps my approach to life flexible, lets me embrace its imperfection and chaos, and encourages me to achieve a perfect flow. I feel I have become truly present in that silence, as that silence has now become my ahh-haa moment.

=========================

Prompt: Tell us about your favorite way to get lost in a single activity - running, chopping veggies, folding laundry etc.
What's it like when you are in the zone?