laundry.

This may come as a surprise but one of my favorite things about living in Nicaragua is hanging my clothes out to dry. I remember my first, real international experience in the Dominican Republic in two-thousand eleven and being drawn to the fact that everyone hung up up their laundry - dryers seemed nonexistent. And they would hang it anywhere! On the door frame, on the barb wired fence, on an old rusty line behind their house, in the trees and bushes.

I love getting to be a part of that now. It kind of makes me feel like I've made it down here, you know? When I learn exactly how to hang different types of clothes so they don't get stretched out or wrinkled lines in them - knowing which time of day is best to start laundry so that clothes will dry the fastest - seeing how the sunlight hits the line at different times in the day - finding out which clothes take the longest to dry and hanging them in the spot where they will get the most sunlight. It really is almost an art.

But do you know my favorite part about hanging laundry? It allows me to slow down. For ten to fifteen minutes, I have no choice but to forget everything else I have to do and hang my wet clothes on the line. It's almost therapeutic. It allows a space in my constantly busting at the seam schedule to think, to be silent, to listen.

I have a quote on my desk that has been one of my goals for two-thousand fifteen: "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." The hurried life is the life that breaks me down, that depletes my energy, that drains my soul. So in seeking to live in the grace of the unhurried life, I have come to so very much appreciate the gift that is hanging laundry.