Afterimage

When the mundane is superimposed on the potentially transcendent. It ought to be the other way round...

“An afterimage, or after-image, is an image that continues to appear in the eyes after a period of exposure to the original image.”

Wikipedia

Afterimage
Or "The Housewife's Lament"
Based on real life events

It has been said by learned men
That we become what we behold,
And surely it is true for some
That sight sustained is like a mold;

But it can also be quite true
That seeing shapes the seer's eyes;
That what we look on everyday
Fatigues our vision, blurs our sight. 

And so it happened that today, I
Raised my eyes from earth to see
The mountain's glory rising high 
And saw instead - laundry.

---

I looked at the mountain today, bathed in opalesent light from the rising sun, and thought, “It looks just like a pile of towels waiting to be folded.”

If I could have turned to stare aghast at myself, I would have.

Tell me you are a housewife without using those words.

Take this as an encouragement to check on your local stay-at-home parents, especially parents of little ones. Maybe offer to watch their kids for a couple of hours so they can go for a walk or visit an art gallery or read a book or have time to sit in glorious silence. I'm in no way dogging on motherhood, but anyone who has been a parent for 5 minutes knows it is tough to remember the views from the mountain in the thick air of the valley.

It is tough to see the transcendent in the daily. Poetic vision needs practice to stay sharp. Getting up out of the routine for 60 minutes together - heck, less even - can clear the head and eyes and renew one's strength of purpose. And when a body is in the season of slogging through diapers and nursing and sleepless nights and toy bin explosions and piled dishes and snotty faces and potty training and keeping children alive who one second refuse to move and the next try to bolt into a busy road (or in my case, the worries and struggles and pains that come with the teen and young adult stage) - well, it's good to get a higher, more transcendent perspective every once in a while.

Motherhood is not for the faint of heart or weak of inner sight. I've heard some people say it is a season of life but I don't believe in seasonal vocations. It is a calling, lifelong, in season and out. And we need each other to do it well. Mothers are persons, too, after all.¹

1. So says Cindy Rollins