Rainy Days and Mondays...


22/100


It's rainy today. Yes, I'm the crazy one that loves rainy days. My house is silent. No tv, no music on the radio. Princess Kitteh next to me. The trees outside have leaves fading from their last deepest green - already I see tinges of yellow forming on their edges. 


I plan on cleaning today. I have a theory... the cleaner and more organized is your house? The cleaner and more organized is your body. Messy house? Unfinished house? House that desperately needs paint and a new roof? House where nothing is organized, nothing is taken care of, nothing is appreciated? House with nothing on the walls, or all white and sterile? All reflections on how you take care of yourself.


I'm not one to quote biblical or other tomes on my blog or in my life, but I think this line sums up my thinking: 


1 Corinthians 6:19- Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you...


I love this quote. I love it because I see how I treat and perceive my external space is a reflection of how I treat and see my internal space. It is also a reminder to treat my body and my home with sacredness.


I think back on the places I've lived in my life. I have striven to make those places warm and inviting. Even my office, although cluttered, is a space students, parents, coworkers and friends feel safe, warm and welcome. Not every environment where I have lived has felt that way. I have actually lived in homes with nothing on the walls, nothing of 'me' really present in the space at all. I realize now, when I look at those places and those times that I was losing myself. The few rooms that did reflect me were a cacophony of clothes, trash and huge amounts of clutter. I think the most telling part of that is the request that I keep the door to those rooms closed because they were such a mess. I complied. The profoundness of that to me is beyond words.


I moved my office recently.  It has more windows but is smaller than the one previously. My office over the past few years has been the one place I felt at home. It was always a mess, but it felt so warm and comforting. It was stuffed full of things. There was literally no room for anything else there. How I kept it even as remotely clean as I did astounds me. When I moved to my new office, I took to my new home seven (yes seven!) huge bins of stuff. Right now those bins are sitting in my garage. I am working on creating rooms in my house that are comfortable and full of things that reflect me - and getting rid of things I no longer need to hold on to. My new office? Is still full of pieces of me. But as I continue to hone down what I want at work, what I want at home and what I want to move on to someone else, I see my environment and my body truly transforming into spaces that are open, clean yet still warm and welcoming. I'm excited about these new spaces - my office, my home, my body. They are slowly getting to where they reflect my life in its entirety: lighter, less cluttered and inviting.


Peace,


MaryKate