Sabbath was approaching; all was prepared except the folding of the laundry. My wife insisted on doing it alone, allowing me to continue my reading of the Torah portion of that Sabbath.
I looked up for a mental pause in my deliberations of the text and my attention was suddenly captured by the sight of my wife bending over the basket of newly dried clothes, carefully and contentedly folding them neatly into a rising pile of sheets, towels and undergarments, from which her loved ones could pluck items of personal comfort and ease. She was lovely; simply dressed, without facial or bodily adornment, a soft radiance beamed from her face.
I just sat there, silently watching, washed over by a sense of deeply penetrating gratitude; in this quiet moment it was revealed how fortunate and blessed I was for the presence of this precious person. It was as if the fullness of a marriage was discovered in this ordinary, passing moment.
I returned to the Torah text. I read: “Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov”-How good, how fair, how wonderful are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwelling places, O Israel.
A reminder of the beauty and blessing in one’s home, a home made joyful and sacred by the ordinary act of folding the laundry, an act of ordinary love.
“Let the world have its way with you…graced as it is with the ordinary.” Mary Oliver
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