Monster in the bedroom

I did something today that I hoped I never would when I had my own home. I had invited someone for dinner and between cooking and running errands, I didn't get the house cleaned like I had intended. So 45 minutes before my friend arrived, I took all the clutter that has been collecting around the house for the past month and threw it in the bedroom and shut the door. I immediately felt ashamed. Growing up, that was how we "cleaned" the house whenever we had visitors---I always hated it and vowed many times I would never do that when I grew up.

It made me realize I really need to do something about my housekeeping. After my guest left, I forced myself to clean the bedroom, and put everything away in it's proper place. I also did some thinking on how to motivate myself to clean. I'm not looking to keep my home immaculately scrubbed. All I want is it to look tidy and comfortable. A little dirt is okay. I don't want to spend my life cleaning. I'm sure you've all heard the saying: "No one has ever said on their death bed: 'I really regret not keeping my house cleaner. If I could live my life over, I'd do more housework.'" I know on my death bed I won't care a bit whether or not my house was clean at all times. But I do know that constant clutter and grime weigh me down and make me depressed. At times the house is so dirty that the thought of cleaning it is overwhelming and I can't seem to get up the energy to even start. I just give up and go outside and do something I like to do.

I hope want my home to be a quiet peaceful place. I want it to be full of love and beauty. A dirty house does not reflect peace and quiet and it certainly doesn't seem like a place where love abides. It most definitely is not beautiful. Terry did a lot of hard work making this little house nice for me. It certainly would be a gesture of appreciation to keep it reasonably clean. (Lately he has been doing far more housekeeping than I have been.) It is a very attractive little house on the inside and deserves to be cared for well.

To get me inspired this evening I went and looked up what Catherine Doherty (founder of Madonna House) had to say about cleaning. She has written about just every practical mundane part of everyday living and is usually pretty good. I've pulled out a quote from her chapter on cleaning and posted it below. I also picked a little bouquet of roses and lavender and place them on the window sill next to my little statue of Our Lady and asked her to inspire me. Mary certainly would not have been a sloppy homemaker!

"Have you ever thought of the song of the cleaning materials? How symbolic all this is! So here I am dusting. I am dusting a chair well. You just hear a swish. But if I am putting my soul, my heart, my love for God into this action, not missing any corner or any place, I am disciplining myself. I am beginning to die to self. I am really singing a song of love with each movement.

There are two songs today: there is hate and denial of God (or at least indifference to God), and there is our little song that starts in the morning, making the corners of the bed because you love. No other reason in the world could make you do them so well. You want to mortify that body of yours, discipline that mind of yours, make your will strong. Because you were faithful in little things, you can be faithful in big things.

You must begin at the bottom where Christ began, at the feet of his apostles: Hear the song of polishing, of elbow grease, of dusting, of cleaning, and of doing everything well for the love of God!

Place yourself in Nazareth with Our Lady during her time of waiting to give birth when she had no one but Joseph. Nobody paid any attention to her. You pay that attention. You sweep for those who never swept the cobwebs and the dirt from their souls — and still don't. Sweep in the Nazareth of human minds and hearts. Prepare that inn eternally, every day, for the Child to be born, the Child who was denied the inn and still is denied the inn of our hearts.

Narrower and narrower is the group of people who believe; still narrower those who will believe and lay down their lives for the Lord. Begin to lay your life down now — in the exacting, routine, monotonous, repetitious work of cleaning. Do it well. Offer it up. Pray. Don't pray with words; pray with your hands. Your movement is a prayer.

You see, give concentration and thoughtfulness to things today, and tomorrow you will give thoughtfulness to people. There is so much beauty in the action itself, in concentration, and in its results."