In the Moment—One Pilgrim's Attempt to Be Present
By Amy Sander Montanez, D. Min.
Anything but the kitchen sink
I didn’t know it would be this way. I didn’t realize how my life revolves around the kitchen sink. Fill the coffee pot with water at the kitchen sink. Stir the cat food, rinse the spoon in the kitchen sink. Wipe the crumbs from the counter in to the kitchen sink. Take your vitamins with a swig of water from the kitchen sink. Make a bowl of instant oatmeal, with a cup of water from the kitchen sink. Throw the ice leftover in a glass in the kitchen sink. Make a salad, wash the cutting board in the kitchen sink. Cut your finger while opening mail, rinse and disinfect at the kitchen sink. Need a glass of water after working in the yard, go to the kitchen sink. Wash any dish or cup or glass or pot or container in the kitchen sink. You get the idea. I keep thinking about the saying, “She packed everything but the kitchen sink.” I’m now thinking the kitchen sink should be the first thing we pack. We should pack the thing that our lives revolve around. I’ve never heard of the kitchen sink used as a metaphor for our relationship with God, and I’m wondering why not. My relationship with God is like my relationship with the kitchen sink. I stumble to this place first thing in the morning. I turn it on to start the process of nourishing myself. I return to it constantly, to dump messes, to wash off, to prepare food and drink, to offer others hospitality, and sometimes to nurse a wound. When my daughter was days and weeks old, I bathed her in it. I washed my mother’s hair in it when she couldn’t shower any more. I prefer it to be tidy, but that’s not always the case. Maybe your time at home doesn’t revolve around the kitchen. Because I like to cook, and because no matter how I try to use other rooms, every visitor to my house ends up in my kitchen, my home life is predominantly in my kitchen. Wherever your life is centered at home, try thinking about it as a metaphor for your relationship with God. You might find it curious and helpful, as I did. I guess some of yours might be a little more techno savvy, like “My relationship with God is like my relationship with the TV….or like my relationship with the computer…or with the video games…etc.” Or maybe it’s something like “My relationship with God is like my time in the workshop…or like my time in the garden.” Just play with the idea and see what you come up with. I know this for sure. My mother was right when she said you don’t realize how important something is until you don’t have it. I will never take my kitchen sink for granted again. And I will try not to let the metaphor get lost in the busyness of every day living.
©Copyright Amy Sander
Montanez, 2007
I’ve been living without a kitchen sink now for three months. There are other things we are living without due to these renovations: a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, stove and oven, books, TV for about a week, and any semblance of order. But the thing I miss most is the kitchen sink.