The world we live in today with all it's craziness everywhere we turn has had me looking inward a whole lot the past couple of years. That inwardness revealed some subject matter and turned my thoughts toward blogging again. That's how I came up with the new blog title "Where The Clothes Pins Are". I can find pretty much anything I'm looking for around the house and then some, where the clothes pins are. That phrase goes a long way back in my life and suddenly made perfect sense to me about a month ago.
When I was growing up, my mother never had a clothes dryer. She always had clothes lines outside to hang wet laundry on to dry. If we moved somewhere that didn't have clothes lines, lines were always strung wherever they would fit in the back yard...and where there were clothes lines, there were clothes pins.
My mother always had a cloth bag with a wire frame at the top opening and a long wire handle bent at the top to hang and slide along the line for clothes pins. She made the bags herself from cheerful, colorful, calico print fabrics. She would replace them every other winter or so after they had faded and worn from much outdoor use. They were very simple in form but a bright spot in an otherwise dreary job for us kids who got stuck with hanging out fresh wash once we were tall enough to reach the clothes lines, even it meant standing on a kitchen chair to reach.
That bag of clothes pins was never left hanging outside on the line. It was always brought back inside after each load of wash was hung to preserve the wooden clothes pins and protect the bag itself. It was always stored where it was easy to get to when needed, but usually in a place where a multitude of other utilitarian things were stored...like the corner of a partially enclosed carport, or a tall corner shelf in the kitchen, or a service porch where the washing machine was, or a screened in breezeway between the house and the garage. You could find pretty much anything you were looking for in these areas if it didn't have a designated place elsewhere in the house. If anyone asked mama if she knew where something might be we couldn't find elsewhere, she'd say "Look where the clothes pins are."
In today's world, not many of us hang wash out on the line anymore. My sister still does, but that's another story for another time. Most have washer/dryer combos to keep life as simple as possible. As a result, we don't have a colorful bag of clothes pins hanging near the washer. BUT...I do. No, I don't have clothes lines, nor a cloth bag to store them in. I don't even have a washer or dryer (apartment life dictates that). But I do have clothes pins. Lots of them. Cute, sturdy, brightly colored plastic clothes pins I keep in little baskets all over the house...and the utensil drawer in the kitchen.
I use them for mostly everything other than their intended use...potato chip bag clips, on flour and sugar bags in the fridge, hang pants on hangers in the closet, hand washed lingerie on hangers to dry over the bath tub, hold a recipe book open to a certain page, pin the towel on my head after I wash my hair, and a multitude of other uses in my crafty endeavors and around the house. As a result, clothes pins are pretty much in all the areas of my apartment that get the most use.
I discovered not long ago that I have a bag of clothes pins stored deep inside myself. It's always been there. As I get older and I go about life differently than I did forty years ago, even two years ago, I find myself looking inward a lot more. It isn't something I set my mind to do. It just kind of happened on it's own. The colorful bag of clothes pins inside is a nice place to reach into these days.
The pandemic has certainly given the multitude ample opportunity for such a thing. I'm kind of the exception to that rule because the "shut down" didn't shut me down. I've had to get out every day to keep working and shop and do my daily stuff. I didn't luck out and get to work from home, or have my shopping or meals delivered, or any of the other things it forced many to do. But it did provide the opportunity for my thought processes to change somewhat and re-evalute what's important to me, my life today and life going forward. That's where I discovered that bag of clothes pins inside.
I don't look for as many things to do, or buy, or say, feel or think these days. I think that's all part of that "with age comes wisdom" thing. What once was important isn't as important now. What I once thought desperately needed saying is better kept quiet. What once used to horribly get under my skin doesn't matter anymore. What I once thought I just couldn't live without hasn't been on my radar for quite some time. It's just easier to not get so focused on all those stresses and let life happen. In a world that's so worked up over so many things today, this approach to life serves me well.
I find that if I feel there's something missing around me, chances are I'll find it inside myself "where the clothes pins are".
My jump back into blogging, even though it's not a trend anymore, has officially begun. It will be a mix of things I think, feel, and do. I hope it's a journey you'll peek into from time to time.
Did you lose something? Have been you looking for something without getting the results you want? Try looking inward "where the clothes pins are".
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