Parable of the Dishwasher

When I started this blog I decided it would contain professional content only. I realize now that my failure as a blogger is that I have limited myself by not wanting to write about what I am truly passionate about and that is people... particularly my people. My husband, my children, my patients (as long as they agree), and the many people I work with. I have decided that I am going to let down a few of my walls and I am going to write about what I learn in my personal life as well as my professional life. I hope this is going to be what I have been needing in order to truly enjoy blogging... and gain more than three followers.

The Parable of the Dishwasher

For months my dishwasher has been on the fritz. I have read a lot about dishwashers and and how to troubleshoot one that is not fulfilling its divine potential to keep my dishes clean and shiny. Despite my efforts it was doing everything but keeping my dishes clean and shiny. Food would still be stuck on the dishes, I had to pre-wash everything so much that I could have returned it to the cabinet but was having a hard time truly coming to terms that the dishwasher was not working and kept insisting that it would do better this time trying a new combination of settings only to have to re-wash again to get the dried food and hard water stains removed. I have never lived without a dishwasher, from the time I was a little girl there was always a dishwasher in our kitchen. How can anybody live without one? The thought of having to soak the dishes in a sink of hot soapy water, washing everything one by one, rinsing it, drying it and then being left with the DISGUSTING brown water that the dishes were washed in and having to reach down amid the gunk and pull the plug was barbaric in my mind. Something only savages would be okay with.

My husband spent several hours performing dishwasher CPR only to finally give me the news that there was no hope, it had flat lined and it was time for me to let go. I even tried to just use the bottom rack a couple of times hoping to hand wash only half of the dirty dishes. I had to come to terms with the death of the appliance I have come to rely on day after day after day. Just buy a new one! Nope, not until we get our tax return.

So I am stuck hand washing my dishes for the next several weeks. I could have never imagined what happened next. Getting my dishes ready to soak my 22 month old daughter came up and said "wash!" and so I pulled up a kitchen chair next to me, turned the faucet on just enough to trickle and handed her a sponge. Her job was to rinse- which meant playing in the water and moving the dishes in the sink around until I rinsed them and put them up to dry. This kept her happy and busy for 20 minutes- which is a monumental task for a toddler. Day #2 she finds me at the sink and comes running across the kitchen yelling, "Mama! Wash! Pease!" I pull up her chair thinking the duration will not hold like it did the first time and was so surprised that she stayed until the dishes were done. It is now five days into our life without a dishwasher and day after day she stands next to me on that kitchen chair to help Mama wash dishes. We make it fun. After I was the dish I hand it to her and say, "blue bowl" or "green plate" or whatever it is and she says, "yeah! Blue bowl. Thanks Mama!". We dance and we sing songs and everyday we leave the dry dishes out on the towel to brag to Daddy at night how many dishes we washed by hand. I would have never guessed a mundane task like washing dishes would provide such sweet moments with my baby girl. It made me wonder how much more we might be missing because we surround ourselves with gadgets and appliances and things to make our life "easier", "more fulfilling" and more gratifying. It never occurred to me that done together mundane tasks can become so special, even sacred. Now this does not mean that I will not buy a new dishwasher, because believe me I have already been shopping. But it did teach me a valuable lesson. That we need to learn to turn off the world, turn off our gadgets, hide our phones, iPads, and computers and take time to simply be together. It does not have to be planned out, it doesn't have to be on a vacation, we need to simply be in the present and be with our children and have them right next to us when we do things like pay the bills, fold the laundry, or do dishes.Ho w else will they learn if not from us?You know, house work is quite enjoyable when you have a little person splashing you with water or using the vacuum as a motorcycle to ride through the forests of her imagination. Life is beautiful, families are central to our happiness, and we need to enjoy every moment we are given. Even if it means sticking our hands in dirty brown water to pull the plug.