Hey Everyone! I’ve missed y’all but this week was unusually crazy. My kids were off Monday and Tuesday, I had my oldest home on Wednesday, I wrote yesterday for a friend of mine, and today…ah today…I had laundry.
Which, coincidentally, is today’s Five Minute Friday’s word prompt: Laundry. But remember this month, I’m trying to make the prompt work for this series, “Finding my Tribe”. At first, I we worried, but as I was sorting and gathering the laundry I had a great idea to talk about my local tribe.
So far, I’ve been writing about this tribe’s distinctions in a hope to gather women who resonate with the ReKnew Manifesto, Anabaptist tradition, and working from a Jesus-centered hermeneutic (view of the Bible) globally. Today I want to talk about gathering, connecting with, and doing life with my local tribe—the girls on our church plant’s launch team and my closest friends. Gathering local women has been on my mind all week as I just registered our church, New City Covenant to host an IF:Local gathering here in Boston! Tribes both locally and globally are dear to me and I hope this post encourages you to gather and love on your tribe.
Lessons from the Laundry:
GO
When I think about going to the Laundromat, I get this pit in my stomach. “Ugh, again?! It feels like I just did laundry! Why can’t everything stay clean or at least not get so dirty so quickly!” I mumble as I step over wet towels on the bathroom floor or bundle up the linens kicked to the edge of the bed.
The intentionality about going to the Laundromat that’s so similar to putting myself out there and getting to know other women it’s uncanny.
Anytime my tribe gathers, I sit at home mere minutes with a pit in my stomach minutes before it’s time to leave and moan to myself, “ Ugh, again! It feels like I was just at mom’s group?”, “Why do we have to have a girls night out every month?” “Really? A conference?”
Now, I’m the first want to plan these types of events, but I’m constantly attempting to blot out the stubborn stains of insecurity and fear from my mind that feeds my anti-social tendencies.
When I think about going to the Laundromat, I have to take care to sort the clothes well. Linens, dedicates, and socks each get their own basket. They gather together, mingle around one another in their funky dirty states. They’re ready to go through the agitation and cleansing process of the washer.
And I’m reminded of the times I force myself out and around the table we bear our hearts. We put our “dirty laundry” out for all to see. Ones child caught her and her husband arguing. Another’s daughter caught them making love. One wonders if the weight she’s gains since having the baby has affected their love life and another pushes her pasta, around her plate and tells us about her teenage battle with anorexia. But we come together, mingle around one another in our funky, dirty states and open ourselves to the cleaning process of being real and honest with our tribe.
When I think about going to the Laundromat, I think about the crisp, hopeful smell of new clean clothes.
And I’m reminded of the settled, satisfied, known feeling I get when I come home from time with my tribe and I feel hopeful and ready for a new day. Someone loves me. Someone cares about me. I am not alone.
These are two of many lessons I learned today from the laundry.
STOP
Want to join in the fun? There are some truly entertaining and special posts on laundry.
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Tomorrow, I’ll post a wonderful sermon by Bruxk Cavey on family to remind us of the value of diversity and unity within the family of God.
Excited to FINALLY have clean towels ,
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