In the Shaking Of Rugs and Washing Of Windows

Sometimes those who are just a few steps outside of our lived reality can out into words what we cannot because we are too close to it.  I recieved the follwing words the other day from a sister I have known for just under a year and yet somehow she captures what my heart feels like at this very moment from 200 miles away.  She writes:

 

I imagine you are NOT counting the days and yet counting the days in two different ways. I think of all of you often. It is not easy to experience the intensity of grace, personal growth, deep faith sharing, unbridled laughter, spontaneity, companionable silence, and sheer wonderment at it all knowing you each want this life so much, so very much - while still listening carefully for the intersection of your dream and God's - and just say "Goodbye".

No, you will be saying something like, "I am full of deep appreciation for you - for what your/our/my future holds and how it holds us together in this Dominican life. Please God we will continue growing, loving, forgiving, honoring, respecting similarities and making room differences in the compassionate life giving we have done so here." It may not be said in words. It will be said in your glances. In your smiles, in your tears, in the tight anxious silences of "do I go into that or not" moments, in the shaking of rugs and washing of windows.

 

I've come to wonder if this week of cleaning we are about to begin isn't really about cleaning but rather about encountering God and one another through the most ordinary of household chores.  Whenever I clean out something (car, sock drawer, a cabinet etc) I am almost always surpised by something I find.  May we learn to be surpised not so much by what we find but by who we find.