I thrive on organizing and attending to my home. I spent Ash Wednesday fasting and deep cleaning my house, transitioning seasonal decorations and fine-tuning organizational systems that had been failing for six months. I spent Good Friday fasting and rearranging my furniture, shifting bookshelves and side tables and lamps and plants until I finally could look around and feel satisfied, and more importantly, undistracted. Easter brought springtime, and springtime brought a change of clothes in my dresser, and an opportunity to change how I folded them. While I won’t make this an advertisement for Marie Kondo, I will say seeing neatly folded and clearly visible shirts, pants, and sundry items begins and ends each day with peace instead of chaos. Oh, and I bought a vacuum, and filled it up instantly with months worth of hair and dirt. I always thought vacuums were for wedding registries, and thus have always bummed off my roommates’ instead of buying my own. I can’t even convey the empowerment and thrill I feel every time I use it; that the time to get clean and have a clean home is now, not later.
For the last year, I’ve been trying to extend the same fervor of neat attention to my habits and behaviors, and mostly, to my heart. I have dusted off cobwebs and struggled with stains. It’s the hardest cleaning job I’ve ever had to do, and it never seems to be complete.
