Until today, I hadn't been inside a launderette since 1978, the basement of University Towers in Tulsa, OK. Since I've been in Germany, I have used the washer and dryer of a friend while I searched Ramstein Yardsales.com for a set of my own. Accepting an offer of goodwill from a friend becomes uncomfortable after awhile and I believed it was time to use an alternative solution for cleaning my clothes.
The difficulty in buying a washer and dryer in Germany is several fold. If it is American made then it is 110v and Germany has only 220v. You can buy a transformer, but that gets really costly. Then, there are 2 types of dryers. A conventional and a condenser. The condenser model is for those without an outside vent or drain. The water pools collects in a tray in the bottom of the dryer, then you empty it. Another problem I have encountered is transportation of heavy items. But none of this matters now, because I have decided I love going to the Launderette.
It's so simple really. You put in your wash and read. You take them out of the dryer, fold them or hang them on hangars. Hanging out the wash was my job growing up, as was folding the clothes. I remember the "chore" of hanging clothes on the line as being somewhat pleasurable. If you did it properly, ironing was made easier. And as I folded clothes today, I found myself smiling.
I recently started reading Living Buddha, Living Christ, by Thich Nhat Hanh, again. Just snippets before I go to bed and one thing that stuck in my mind is what separates a Buddhist from a christian. A Buddhist Monk said, and I'll paraphrase...when a christian sits, he sits. When a Buddhist sits, he knows he is sitting. I knew I was folding clothes today and it was so peaceful. A simple task.
I am not a Buddhist and neither am I a Christian, but today I experienced the Zen of Laundry and I thought I love how simple my life has become. I won't be buying a set of my own. There really is no need.
Choos.
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5 comments:
yea for no washer and dryer. If you get sick of launderette's as you so quaintly put it, perhaps the option of washer, no dryer will work. I have been doing it for years. Bad news, ironing becomes a necessity but that was my childhood chore and I can wax eloquently about the zen of ironing, but I will spare you.
I must be a Buddhist because I mowed the yard in the Oklahoma August heat and I absolutely knew I was doing it. I could taste the salty sweat on my upper lip, count the beads dripping between my breasts, become one with the gnats disturbed as I made my clever diagonal stripes, and inhale that luscious fresh mown aroma. Now a Christian might mow the yard on a Sunday but they would be so riddled with guilt they would not enjoy it nearly as much as a Buddhist.
Ah, I remember that scent! I loved sweating in Oklahoma, mainly because I thought my body had forgotten how after all of those years in Seattle. Maybe thats why I've gained weight in Germany. I don't sweat anymore! But I do have to ask, from one seester to another...where was Tom???
Tom was on the golf course, of course, and his lovely wife, with NO prompting, surprised him and mowed the blessed lawn her-own-self!! Now that's TRUE love..........signed, Tom
You're a lucky man, Tom Dooley!
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