If this sink can become
a place of contemplation,
let me learn constancy here.
-Gunilla Norris
Many women approach the unrelenting, repetitive, exhausting work known as housekeeping as if it was torture. Because we dread it we put it off for as long as possible.
Granted housekeeping is much like the movie, "Ground Hog Day" where you keep repeating the same day or the same actions over and over and never seem to get any where. The clean becomes dirty, the dirty is made clean, over and over day after day.
That is of course, assuming we get around to it daily. For two-thirds of American women who also work outside their home, this means tackling household chores between seven P.M. and seven A.M.
But I discovered - to my dismay- that "Order" is among the principles to be explored along the Magical path. In the beginning I balked at this. Although I frequently felt frazzled and adrift, especially when I tried to find something; or tried to ignore my husband, "Wolfy's" socks on the floor or the dog hair and clutter around me. The merits of "order" seemed old-fashioned, uninspired and unimaginative. It seemed as dreary and cheerless, in fact as the word "chore." When what I longed to bring into my life was something upbeat.
But then, living in Pennsylvania, I contemplated the Amish. And I was struck by their seamless stitching together of life, work and art (have you ever seen their quilts?) with Divine Order. The Amish, the Quakers and the Shakers believe that their daily work, including housekeeping, is a personal expression of worship.
And aren't our homes in fact our "temples?" To clean all the dusty corners is to clear our homes of negativity that has become stultified. When we go to this task with a right frame of mind we can imbue our whole home and family with good energy and protection.
Magic and Housekeeping have always gone together. When we clean our homes and make them orderly, we are somehow also cleaning and ordering ourselves. We do not want to create Magic from dis-order; as this is garbage in -garbage out. Much better if we create a clean slate for magic to occur.
Good Luck, Good Magic and Good Housekeeping!
Lory
