Transparent labor
As the Fall progresses I can feel myself becoming transparent. My life is filling up with invisible tasks. These are the seemingly small tasks that no one notices if someone else is doing them, but everyone notices if they are left undone. During the past six months the tasks either went undone or one of the household adults very visibly prodded one of the kids into doing it. We leaned on the kids for chores because the other option was to go without cleanliness. My schedule opened up and I have found myself sliding in to doing all of those tasks. I have become like the water in which everything else floats. I organize and clean and plan so that life runs smoothly for the other folks in the house. I am the facilitator, the enabler.
This sounds like a horrible recipe for ingratitude and resentment, but I don’t believe that will happen. This is right for this season of our lives. The kids have needed me to carry them a little as we weather the rough transition into this school year. Howard has need our home to be stable and routine so that he can develop a work rhythm which will allow him to get rolling on the next book. This is my season for filling my life with small services that make things smoother for everyone else. This is my season for organizing and clearing out. More insanely busy times will come to us. That is the nature of our work. We will again need to lean on the kids to help keep the house clean. But we have been granted a season of relative peace. A time when my emotional and creative energies are expended first upon home and family. I need to use it well.