I have a fun story to share this week about laundry and my personal lesson about the transformative power of love.
John and I have been away from home for six weeks due to John’s consulting work, and we’ve been staying at a hotel. One of the things I most appreciate about our hotel is the guest laundry facilities, which is important when you are away from home for an extended period of time.
However, earlier this week I was feeling less than appreciative as I went to use the facilities, as it seemed that several guests had left their wet clothes in the machines overnight and not come to retrieve them – leaving no machine free for our washing. I checked several times throughout the morning, hoping to find an available machine, without luck.
I found myself mentally chastising my fellow guest(s) for their inconsiderate behaviour, and since I didn’t want to interfere with someone else’s laundry, I tromped back to our room, each time in a worse mood than the last until I eventually resolved to give up for the day
And I would have given up had I not listened to lovely heart activation meditation by Corrina Steward. At the end of this particular heart activation, and as I felt the ripples of love emanating from my heart and out into my surroundings, Corrina suggested that these ripples of love would come back as an opportunity to transform a challenging situation through love. I opened my eyes and immediately thought of laundry.
Following this lead, I made my way down to the guest laundry again. This time I saw a woman pulling clothes out of a dryer. I figured this was my opportunity to transform the situation with love, so I asked her if she had clothes in any of the (still full) washing machines. She said no. Then I told her how I’d been trying to wash my clothes all day but couldn’t because none of them had been emptied.
She looked at me strangely and asked why I hadn’t just emptied them myself. Perhaps it’s one of those cultural differences. I think it’s rude to interfere with another person’s clothes, but she didn’t think so. She offered to empty one of the machines for me, so I need not feel bad, and started hauling out clothes from one.
Then she stopped and said, “Wait, these ARE my clothes!” Apparently, she’d forgotten about them and was just about to check out. If I hadn’t gone down when I did she would have left without them. With no time to dry them, she piled her wet clothes on top of her dry ones and I helped her carry her stuff out to her car. She really was just about to check out!
You may remember Nantene and Malachor’s call to action to choose love in every situation. I am on board with that message and know that part of my work is to support that message getting out into the world, but I was thinking way too big. I was thinking about refugees, the homeless, abused and neglected children. All of those are great areas to activate the transformative power of love. I just wasn’t thinking small enough; the day-to-day personal challenges where it is easy to choose irritation rather than love. Those situations can be transformed by love as well.
Think small,
Louise x
