Do you make the bed?
Once upon a time the answer to this question would most definitely have been no. I would wake up (that was last weeks blog), crawl out of bed and go about getting ready for the day by washing, putting on clothes and eating cornflakes. At night I would then collapse in to the bed again, exactly as I had left it that morning, pull the duvet over me and sleep.
I am a changed man.
My wife always makes the bed. Every morning with out fail she will make sure the bed is made before she has left the house. When we lived in Manchester this was sometimes an issue because I wasn’t always up before she had left for work so the bed remained unmade and so she began to make the bed with me still in it (she still does on some occasions). Over the years though I have been transformed into a bed maker. The first thing I do once I have stepped out of bed is make sure the duvet is straight and “show” pillows are back in place. It isn’t every morning (sometimes my wife is still asleep) but on those mornings I’m the last up I make sure the bed is left made.
There is a wonderful routine to this habit or practice. It creates a little bit of order at the beginning of the day, ordering the messy bed into a nice smooth and ordered space (a little like Genesis 1). It also means I achieve something within the first few minutes of being awake and it may go downhill from there but at least I can say I managed one thing at least. In the book Liturgy of the Ordinary the writer shares here journey to becoming a bed maker and how she develops making the bed into a spiritual practices by taking a few moments to sit on the freshly made bed in silence. Sometimes she reads or prayers or just sits. My bed making doesn’t have this intentional focus to it but it does act as an anchor point in the day which begins my other routines and time of focus (I walk the dog each morning and listen to lectio365).
Now before you all start to think I am a domestic hero I should add this in at the end. I don’t make the bed everyday, it’s a shared effort with my wife that means the bed is always made before we all get on with our days. I also don’t make the bed at other times (like afternoon snoozes) or generally when I am on holiday. There is probably lots of reasons for this but those times are different and I haven’t yet taken on board the importance of making the bed in all scenarios.
So if you haven’t discovered the ordinary, everyday practice of making the bed why don’t you give it a go. You can use it as primer for some silence or reading or you could use it as the anchor point for your day. Give it a go and see what happens. You never know it may be a simple act that changes your life.
Questions
If you make the bed, why? If you don’t, why not?
What is the first thing you do when you get out of bed?
What is your anchor point for the day? The one thing that starts you off to face what ever lies ahead.
How can we build ordinary practices in our routines and rituals that will help us put life into perspective?
Do you think these acts are spiritual?
Photo by Monica Silvestre from Pexels
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.