The Love in Mama’s Towels

For the longest time they lay in the cedar chest in the corner of my bedroom. That was where many of my favorite things were stored–those things collected through the years that hold memories of special people and events.

The hand-embroidered dish towels were a Christmas gift from my mom a few years back. She had made a big pile of them, several for me and each of my siblings. There were eight of us, so it was a lot of towels and a lot of stitches. I knew they were sewn with love (my mom embodies love quite well), which made them a treasured gift.

Carefully wrapped up and tucked away for safekeeping, mom’s gift was a treasure that rarely saw the light of day.

I moved my office to my home last fall, so I had to rearrange and change the way I used my space. It was an opportunity for a major purge, and I felt a strong inner push to clear out the years of accumulated stuff that I felt buried under. In my effort to downsize, minimize, and simplify, I went through every closet, cupboard, shelf, and drawer.

Just as Marie Kondo suggests in her book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” as I touched every item, I opened to my heart response. Did I like it? Did I use it? Was it something I was keeping because I thought I “should”? Did it bring me joy?

In the process, I came across the towels.

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Sitting here a few months later, I just finished folding a basket of laundry. At the top of the pile is one of these special towels. I think of them now as “love towels.” Every time I see them, I think of my mom and my heart expands.

No longer shut away in a box, that love energy has been set loose in my home. When I dry the dishes, wipe up a spill, or fold laundry––each time I touch them, I think of mom sewing each tiny stitch, infusing her creation with the love she holds for life and family.

I could have kept them safe in their box, clean and unused, left for someone in the next generation to figure out what to do with when I’m gone. They would be pristine and pretty, but I wouldn’t have gotten to feel their joy, and that would have been a waste of good energy.

Let loose, love is lots of vital energy that ripples on and on, uplifting everything it comes into contact with.

So stop by, have a cup of coffee or try my homemade kombucha. Do some dishes. You’ll feel the love too.