"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
-Mahatma Gandhi
A friend, yesterday, mentioned that she tried doing her chores with love for one day and found such a feeling of peace through her day. Mondays are usually my most hectic days. My sister calls Mondays the "Big Dig". It seems like you have the weekend pile-up in every room. The bathrooms are always a disaster for whatever reason. The floor always needs to be vacuumed. There is wash to do and groceries to get and the list goes on and on.
So this morning when I was thinking about what fun new thing I would do for the day I thought, "This would be the perfect day to try to do all my chores with love." Now it may sound lame, but really, I did find myself slowing down. Interacting more with my boys instead of just rushing from one thing to the next. In fact, I sat and watched the laundry soap get washed into the washing machine and answer questions about how the water gets there. Instead of what I would normally do, rush through it and "hurry do that so we can do this" type of behavior.
I think as a mother, chores include the daily teaching, disciplining, playing, etc of raising children. I found myself repeating (a lot) to myself, "do ALL your chores with love". And I did slip up, I'm only human after all, I got frustrated with my 2 yr old after he threw frozen peas on the floor and I asked him not to or when he peed all over me because he wouldn't sit on the toilet properly. But I was able to stop yelling and have more patience and understanding that he is learning, just like me, each day.
All in all, at the end of the day I do feel more peace. I am not as exhausted as I usually am. I feel like it was a successful day, both in getting the things done I needed to (even though I did forget toilet paper and string cheese at the store) and I was a good mom (overall).
It really was an experiment! A successful experiment and I will be trying this again. I dare you to try this.
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