Cleaning Is Praying. Praying Is Cleaning!

I recently read a wonderful novel by a Turkish author, Elif Shafak, called The Forty Rules of Love. It's a powerful book, but one of the lines that struck me most was "Cleaning is praying. Praying is cleaning." Why? Well, to me, the feeling of being in a totally clean place is so peaceful and freeing, I feel there is nothing between me and God--it's a sort of heaven on earth. When things are messy and dirty, I feel a heaviness that feels like depression, and like I am in a hole I can't get out of...kind of like hell on earth. Most women, and a few good men, know that keeping something clean is temporary at best. The perfectly cleaned kitchen is marred by the first meal. A lovely cleaned living room is, for some reason, a favorite place for pets to vomit (don't get me started about the white chair in my office!!) So cleanliness is never permanent; it's a process...and the process of cleaning is, to me, a lot like praying.

Which doesn't mean I like it! I am, in fact, an angry cleaner. I get very frustrated when people around me don't pick up after themselves, or have the same standards of cleanliness as I do. I am one of those people who notices when things aren't organized and in the right place. And in the process of cleaning, and cleaning out, I face all my own faults and weaknesses. I buy too many tablets and never use them. I buy too much food and don't eat it. I buy too many toys and cheap crap for the kids, and then don't make them pick them up. And there is always too much damn plastic in the house! But the closer I get to a clean and organized space, and the more I unload my junk, the happier and lighter I feel.

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