I contribute to Northstar in various ways, including by teaching a poetry class and by working with this magazine, The Compass, both as a writer and an editor-at-large. But another way I contribute to Northstar’s “Work of the Day” is by washing dishes.

I once heard a tape in which the speaker talked about the meditative aspects of washing dishes.. He even says that when he’s a guest at a dinner party he always volunteers to wash dishes too. I love this activity . Here are some of the things I like about performing what most people would probably view as a dull and unrewarding task.

First, I enjoy the sound of water as I fill pitchers of it from the sink and dump them into the two “bus buckets”, where the dishes are washed.  Next comes the liquid soap that I squirt into one of the bus buckets. The soap spreads through the water in bright yellow blotches. When I sink my hands into this bucket, the soapy water clings to my hands and forms a slippery second skin.  Then I reach into the buc...