Life Is A Mess And A Miracle

 

“Who made this BIG mess?” ~Big Comfy Couch

Have you ever had one of those days where your life feels like a mess, nothing is working out, you can’t find that thing you put somewhere safe but now that you need it you can’t remember for the life of you where it is? Then you look around and realize the dishes are piled up, there are clothes all over the floor, and why on earth are there sand toys on my desk? Well, for me that tends to happen on a Friday. Well… it’s not always sand toys… but there is usually something weird on my desk… Anyway, Friday has become the day I clean, organize for the upcoming week, and maybe get a project or two done that I didn’t get to earlier in the week. It’s a day of catch up and clean up so that I can truly enjoy the weekend ahead. Because, as I’ve come to realize:

"The world looks a lot nicer with clean windows" ~Grammy

Of course this goes way beyond cleaning windows. I have found that when my space is a mess, my mind quickly follows. It’s not exactly a conscious thing either. It’s waking up to a pile of clothes on the floor and just letting the pile get bigger as I can’t decide what to wear for the day. It’s realizing I forgot to hang that dress back in the closet and throwing it on top of the pile is so much easier than shoving it in my overstuffed closet because it’s late and I want to go to bed. It’s digging through the pile on my desk for that one clipboard with my lesson plan on it that has now gone missing. It’s realizing my water bottle is still waiting to be washed but now I need to leave or I’m going to be late. It’s remembering my bathing suit is still hanging on the line and it’s supposed to rain tonight. All these little things start adding up, making my everyday life feel like more of a mess than it already did. And my life often feels like a bit of a mess. It feels like there’s nothing I can do to clean it either. How do I clean the things I have little or no control over? But I do have control over something.

"My life was a mess... But I could clean my room" ~To All The Boys I've Loved Before

So, I added cleaning to my schedule. Because life is busy, work takes up so much of my time, family takes up the rest, cleaning becomes an afterthought if I don’t add it to the calendar. Sure, it still piles up sometimes, not every Friday offers the time needed to clean up every mess I happen to make over the week, especially if the week involves any sort of costume… but it helps keep it from getting out of control without monopolizing my weekend. I need time to enjoy life too. Life will always be a bit of a mess, there’s no escaping it, but we can always do our best to keep the messes we can clean up under control. And it doesn’t have to feel like such a chore either. Cleaning up can be freeing, rewarding, sometimes it can even be fun.

"Life is a mess and a miracle. So pick up a broom and dance" ~The Rise And Fall Of Mount Majestic

And before you know it, you’ll be able to see the floor, you’ll find that thing you were missing, you’ll remember why those sand toys are on your desk, you’ll see the world through clean windows, and you’ll realize maybe your life isn’t such a mess after all, especially since tomorrow, well, tomorrow it’ll be Saturday.