The Satisfaction of Simple Things

For quite a long time, I lived in an elderly trailer in the back yard of my parents' property.  

That trailer had no insulation to speak of, so it was icy-cold in winter, furnace-hot in summer.  There were all sorts of issues that made life inconvenient at best and made for hair-tearing frustration at worst.  In that trailer, I learned to make-do, to adjust, to tolerate.  It was, strangely enough, top-rate as a learning experience, and it showed me that there were many unexpected ways to be happy.

One of my favorites was listening to the washing machine.

For the first ten years or so that I lived in the trailer, I had to do my laundry at my parents' house and that often wasn't convenient, for any number of reasons.  So when my parents replaced their washer and dryer, they decided to give me the old pair--one of the best gifts I ever received.

The trailer bedroom was tiny (perhaps 8 x 8 feet) but, despite the lack of square footage, it had three large windows so it was always a sunny, pleasant place.  The laundry hook-ups were in the hall next to it.  Even now when I listen to the washing machine, it takes me back there.....sitting on the bed in the sunshine, listening, and happy in knowing that there would be clean sheets to sleep on that night.

I'm listening to another washer today, in another place, but it is still the sound of satisfaction and I'm still sitting in the morning sunshine daydreaming of crisp fresh sheets.