Thinking of Grout

July 7, 2026

Beloved,

             I’ve been thinking about my grout, the concrete stuff that holds tile in place and gets dirtier the more it’s mopped.   I’ve owned three different houses over the past thirty years, all of which had tile, and not once have I cleaned grout.  The house I now own is more than 30 years old and I can say with some confidence the grout has never been cleaned as  it’s black throughout the kitchen save the pantry floor where it’s a nice creamy beige.  When we decide to clean something really dirty we say we are going to tackle it, which is how I spent a good part of my holiday weekend, tackling my grout.  Like Brother Lawrence peeling his potatoes, the tedium of running my $10 electric scrubber back and forth in that narrow road between each tile became almost meditative, allowing me to think about absolutely nothing.  Rarely can I think about nothing.
             Of course I am nothing like Brother Lawrence.  I complain and procrastinate and am so easily distracted by all the projects I have going in this house.  I do my best to forgive myself, to tell myself the mess is all my own, that it bothers no one else.  Besides, I finish things all the time, just not as fast as I start new things.
             My simple point is this, framing our daily existence as trying to catch up cannot possibly be the life God intends for us, can it?  Two baskets of laundry and stacks of dishes to be put away do not fit my idea of abundant life.  But somehow mindlessly soaping, scrubbing and wiping away thirty-plus years of homemade alluvium is next level happiness for me.
             I fully expect to die with projects still spread out on my desk and sewing table, with unfinished books all over my house and dirty window sills I’ve been meaning to clean since last fall, or maybe the fall before that. And hopefully my grout will have turned black all over again.  Because I was busy NOT fretting about what wasn’t done but enjoying what each day offered.  Of course it’s far easier to write about than to practice, which is why it is called practice.  Like Brother Lawrence said.

~peace & prayers,
pastor annette 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/498641.The_Practice_of_the_Presence_of_God?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=jSj1qfQ0uV&rank=1

​I got my $10 electric scrubbing tool at Aldi’s.