Toddler Parallels: The Dirty Sock Cycle 🧦

The other day I noticed my son putting my dirty socks into the laundry bin, which is through a slot in our bathroom cabinet. He then opened the cabinet, pulled out my dirty socks, and put them back through the slot. He was delighted by this process, laughing as he repeated it a few more times. Then he went for bigger laundry!

I started thinking about our emotional “dirty laundry”, as adults, and how we interpersonal growth enthusiasts tend to do the same thing my toddler does. We pull our “dirty socks” out from our internal cabinet of shame, place it in the bin of relational awareness, and then, instead of leaving it there to go into the washing machine, we repeat. Just like with my son, there’s absolutely nothing wrong here. The socks will get washed eventually. If anything, seeing this parallel gives me more permission to enjoy the cycle. We can trust that eventually our emotional upsets will be integrated, so we can relax and delight in the whole thing.

(Symbol of the washing machine: True forgiveness process where we see the "embarrassing past" as the illusion/construction that it is?)

With love, Jordan