by Eilin Teeling AMMM            Ireland          28.11.2022

An ordinary laundry task led me to ponder on my blessings.  I had taken a bundle of dry laundry out of my tumble dryer and started to sort out the items for folding and ironing, leaving the task of matching socks for my husband and I until last.  I picked up one sock at a time, looking for its match: orange with orange, blue with blue.  I stopped, looked at them, and was struck by awareness, amazed that I had taken this task for granted.

I was only able to match socks because of what lay behind: my country’s security and safety, our secure food, water and electricity supply, our home and our love, with few serious worries.  The previous day, my husband and I had welcomed a Ukrainian mother and her two children into our home.   Last year, she had matched her family’s socks in her home but now was living in a strangers’ home, having fled from war, leaving her husband behind.   How quickly life changes, sometimes for better but for her and all other victims of war, for worse.

I hope I can live up to St Benedict’s rule that “guests are to be welcomed as Christ.”  I hope I can understand the Gift that God is offering to us in our hospitality and I hope that “Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17).   Above all, I pray for peace in the hearts of those who wage war and destruction.