Chop Wood, Carry Water

The sheer joy of washing is captured in this still from a video shoot in 2023 with fellow artists Claudia Collins and Catherine Browning with a scene from our ‘green washing’ film made in Cornwall, UK.

It’s the weekend again and I am reminded of that need to put structure in my life. For me Saturday is wash day, the weekly wash of towels and sheets hung on the line to dry. 

One of my favourite photos I took years ago was of washing strung out on our country clothes line to dry. It is of the family’s undies and socks forming distinctive  shadow forms on the grass as they dried on a warm windy day. 

It puts me in mind of the famous  Zen Buddhist saying:

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.“

I don’t think I fully understood what this meant until the pandemic when normal events that we took for granted became almost impossible to do. Like meeting for coffee with friends or popping out to do the shopping. We had to devise new ways to connect and be social.

As I searched through my archives to find this washing photograph, I discovered my blogpost from August three years ago during the height of the pandemic. I wrote about Marking the Days where I talk about the medieval breviaries which contained weekly cycles of psalms, prayers and hymns.

The most famous of these books was the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry commonly called The Book of Hours by the Limbourg brothers from the Netherlands who all later died in the plague in 1416. 

This beautiful manuscript contained calendar pages with the constellations as a framework for agricultural activities which tied into the church feast days and holy days. In my blogpost I wrote:

“Documenting our days is one way to celebrate life and our daily activities, even the most mundane of chores.” 

Activities such as cooking and washing bring a sense of rhythm, routine and comfort in life, the assurance that we can live and look after our own needs. It is an incredibly humbling experience when you are sick or in pain, to feel vulnerable and unable to do simple tasks for ourselves.

So this week I have rejoiced in regaining a sense of independence as I start to walk unaided around the house and resume being able to do the simple things like hanging a load of washing on the line and cooking a meal.

Now as I celebrate going for a family outing and preparing a meal, I think about enlightenment as embodying the way we chose to spend our time, our thoughts and activities.  

I’m so glad to literally be back on my feet again. Next week I will return to my studio revelling in being able to move easier and with a renewed sense of purpose. Having counted the minutes last week, I now count the hours and days of my journey of recovery.

My Saturday “washday” photograph with the shadows of undies and socks on the line.