washing the dishes

lately ive been well enough to wash the dishes

almost every day

i think this is due to the additional muscle relaxer i started taking a month ago (im now taking the maximum dose of baclofen—80mg daily)

i wash the dishes in the morning—today i did them while my wife and her grandson were still sleeping

i used to do the dishes at my moms house (when i lived with her)

i worked two jobs (each as a dishwasher) in tucson when i was homeless

washing dishes gives me a sense of accomplishment

of actually doing something (where writing and programming often seem to produce no results)

i can see the operation happening

i know when its finished

the motions take my mind just a little off my thoughts—i do think during dishwashing but its less focused (less obsessive)

on less baclofen the actions of standing at the sink and holding the dishes are impossible—i know this and when its the case i dont even try

that doesnt feel good (to ask my wife to do the dishes on top of everything else she does)

it feels great when im able to wash them

like im contributing to our house in an essential way

and doing dishes is part of my self therapy (when the sink is clean—so is my mind)

doing dishes also presents me with suggestions on how to live

for instance

the lesson of the difficult dish

which states that if you observe yourself having to move awkwardly to work around a particularly difficult dish (perhaps a large pot) it is best to stop your usual process—deal with the difficult dish first—then continue with your process

that applies to life as well

but without dishwashing i would never have such a simple physical analogy for it

i like dishwashing

my hands get soapy

my hands get clean

every surface of every dish gets a touch from the sponge

the sink becomes beautifully empty

my wife smiles when she comes out of the bedroom

and each of these is part of why

i love

washing the dishes