Re-thinking some thoughts from 2013:
Am I the only person on earth who likes to iron? I particularly like to iron in the winter. There’s something about the welcome warmth of the iron, the smell of fresh clothes and the monotony of just moving my arm back and forth that is soothing. Ironing is a good time for thinking. I’m not reading or looking at TV or trying to make my check book balance. Ironing doesn’t require a lot of thought so my brain is free for thinking about other things.
Ironing is good for solving problems. That’s strange, isn’t it? Maybe I can hear God’s answer when I’m not distracted by anything more important than a pair of jeans in need of help. Ironing is a good time to consider what’s going on in my current story. No outside noise interferes, it’s just the iron and me and Darcy and Flora or Ned.
Life doesn’t come all crisp and neat, creased and beautiful. In fact, sometimes life seems like a basket of wrinkled and tumbled clothes, tangled together and needing help. Only thing is, I can’t iron them away. Only God can do that.
I just noticed this in my inbox and realized I hadn’t read it yet. You have a wonderful way with metaphors, Blanche! Yes, most of us have a few pairs of wrinkled jeans. Psalms 55:22 is a good reminder. (I thought Mabel Wickles was the only one who ironed her jeans!)
When my husband and I were first married, I ironed his jeans and mine. We liked that nice, sharp crease down the leg. But, as time went on and dryers made laundry a lot easier, I realized if I took those jeans out as soon as they were dry, folded them so that they had a crease, and hung them up, they looked pretty good. Of course, new jeans had to be ironed for a while and they weren’t easy. Anyway, I still like to iron shirts and blouses and the occasional pair of pants that looks wrinkled when it comes out of the dryer.
Tim fondly remembers the smell of the iron and being with his Grandmother as she tackled the wrinkles many years ago.
I like that scent too. Clothes that were hung on the line had such a fresh smell and if I used spray starch, that smelled good too.