nuggets from Kathleen Norris' The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and "Women's Work"

I've always enjoyed Kathleen Norris, including this small meditation on mundane and never-ending household tasks, spiritual disciplines, and worship. 

On seeing a Catholic family get-together: The marvelous abundance and seemingly bottomless hospitality were overwhelming to my timid Protestant soul–the feasting! The drinking! The toddlers, dogs and cats contending for scraps underneath the picnic tables and the family potluck the night before the wedding! Enough for everyone; more than enough. Amazing. (p. 1-2) 

Observing a priest during communion: "Look at that! The priest is cleaning up! He's doing the dishes!" (2) And then, "homage was being paid to the lowly truth that we human beings must wash the dishes after we eat and drink. The chalice, which had held the very blood of Christ, was no exception." (3) 

But laundry and worship are repetitive activities with a potential for tedium, and I hate to admit it, but laundry often seems like the more useful of the tasks. But both are the work that God has given us to do." (29)