A Kinder Way to "Banish" Water From Your Laundry

A wonderful thing happened sometime after I started to explore Druidry and other things pagan.

Our clothes dryer broke.

Now why is this wonderful? Well, I told my wife the dryer suddenly started to take 2-3 cycles of 80 minutes each to dry a load of clothes. But instead of worrying about having to spend the money to fix it or by a new one, she just simply said we'll get a few of those cheap drying racks and dry the clothes in our daughter's bedroom (who's currently away at college).

I thought, what a wonderful opportunity to step more lightly on the land. By air drying, we'll be cutting down on both gas and electricity.

But, I discovered something else. I am a naturally lazy and impatient person. However, my exploration into Druidry has helped to make more a bit more industrious and a lot more patient. I now equate chores with the earth, since they are physical things that must be done. And my mindfulness about Time has made me make amends with my impatient nature that doesn't want to take time to do things I don't want to do.

Well, this may sound odd, but hanging up wet clothes has become a bit of a spiritual exercise for me. I'm not only reducing the smallest bit of our carbon footprint, but it's actually quite peaceful to do. And, my wife and I often do it together, which is also a pleasant experience.

But then I asked myself today, "Is there something deeper to all of this?" Well, I half-jokingly thought about how the element Water might feel about all of this. For by hanging the wet clothes, am I not encouraging Water to leave the fabric and dissipate into the air. A nice thought, huh?

Then I thought of how we used to do it. Put the clothes in the dryer, which called forth Fire to heat the Air, then expose the clothes to the hot Air. The Water would get all agitated, hot and bothered and be rushed out of the fabric, through the exhaust vent, and out of the house. Sounds pretty violent, huh?

So, methinks it's more polite to hang the clothes on the wooden dowels and patiently let Water depart from our clothes at it's own pace.