Twice a week I get up at the crack of dawn to do laundry. I don’t have a washer/dryer in my apartment but rather we have 2 community laundry rooms on each floor. My mind wanders as I go through the automatic motions of laundry,

I almost always have music playing in my head and the early morning hours usually inspire old time hymns. It seems you can leave the church but the church doesn’t leave you. This morning it was “We Gather Together”.  I never think about why one song or another is on my mental playlist, they just show up.

As I was folding my old, beat-up, ill-fitting clothes I was thinking about the ‘old’ days, and for me that is the 50’s, 60’s and even into the 70’s. The old days when we would get dressed up to go to the doctor. The old days when traveling was a luxury experience and one dressed accordingly. Now we wear our most comfortable clothes when taking a plane but back in the day, hoo-boy, you broke out your best and brightest. And long distance trains rides? Another occasion for your Sunday best.

And speaking of your Sunday best – No matter how poor you were you still had ‘Sunday’ clothes. You only wore them for the few hours it took to get to church and get back home, then everything was spiffed up and put away until next week. You got into your ‘play’ clothes right quick. Do Not scuff those Sunday shoes!

And remember how ‘Sunday’ clothes got recycled? Sunday shoes got rotated to ‘school’ shoes as your school shoes got rotated to ‘play’ shoes. ‘Sunday’ shoes were the only new shoes you ever got and they were always one or two sizes too big when new, you know, so you could grow into them and they could be recycled. Same with coats – Sunday to school to play. 

Oh my goodness, it just dawned on me – we are coming up to Easter, aren’t we? Easter clothes! New shoes, a dress, perhaps a Spring coat and a hat – these then became your ‘new’ Sunday clothes for the year. 

And just this minute as I searched for a closing paragraph I thought “These mindless activities are triggers for a meander through pleasant memories” and then I thought “These are the times when you are told to be mindful, be in the moment” But – as I keep saying, if you are mindful, aware of the moment, you lose the pleasant meandering. Mind meanderings and day dreaming – music and memories – I can’t think of a better way to spend a little time.