Opposites
There are quite a few blog entries in the works, such as one about all the wonderful fresh local fruits and vegetables there are now, about a dog my daughter rescued, and my introduction to cell phones. These entries aren't up yet because I have to download the photos and send them to beloved Heaven Admin to get into the blog because I still haven't figured out how to do it, and so those entries wait.
Meanwhile, every morning I don't know what on earth I'm going to write about. I face a blank screen here on this blog and just take what impulse seems to come and start writing. And, miraculously, an impulse always comes.
And this is what pops into my head to write about this morning:
I have an internet friend who sends out a newsletter every morning 365 days a year, just as I do. Her newsletter is primarily a compilation of spiritual newsletters and writings, and she includes a Heavenletter every time while Heavenletters™ come from scratch.
As you must know, Heavenletters and all that surround it are virtually my whole life. I get up in the morning with Heavenletters, and I go to bed with them at night. I think about Heavenletters and its readers all the time. I must confess that I think about Heavenletters and the forum and the blog and you more than I think about God, and yet, gratefully, He is always there in the back of my mind, and in the center of my heart. Thank You, God.
My friend and I were talking (email), and she still has dial-up, twenty-seven hours' worth of internet a month!
"That's all the internet I need anyway," she said.
Flabbergasted, I emailed: "You spend only TWENTY-SEVEN HOURS A MONTH on your newsletter?"
"Yes, that's all the time I can spend. You see, I have to clean house. I have to keep my house neat and immaculate. every day. I can't live any other way."
Again I typed: "27 HOURS A MONTH? That's all you spend on your newsletter? 27 HOURS A MONTH?!!! A MONTH!!!"
Later, after I had calmed down, I told my daughter that my friend spends no more than twenty-seven hours a MONTH on her newsletter. My daughter said offhandedly, "Why, you spend that much a day on Heavenletters!"
Good grief, I can do the math -- twenty-seven hours a month is less than an hour a day! That's like being on vacation.
How opposite my friend and I are. It's remarkable. She is driven by housekeeping, and I am driven by Heavenletters. Don't tell anyone, but I don't spend even twenty-seven hours a month on housekeeping.
But aren't the differences in people wonderful! Don't you just love the different combinations we are and all the ways we are different and the various reasons we give!
Yet I have some unanswered questions, like: How is possible that I can squeeze in a good movie on TV some nights and still not have time to clean house?
Comments
Well, I confess, my grand plan to declutter is still in the planning stages. Somehow, someway, something always manages to distract. Somehow, someway, that something that distracts is something I'd rather be doing anyway. Oh well.
Oh Gloria I DO love how unique each one of us is and think the real miracle is that we all get along as well as we do in spite of it. I love that you don't spend 27 hours a month housekeeping - I probably don't spend 2 hours a month on housekeeping! I also have to point out - Ahem! - that you really ARE thinking about God when you're thinking about Heavenletters, the forum, the blog and its readers, in the most wonderful way you can.
Bless you!
Gloria, You are wonderful as we all are, Pam I have started to think about decluttering my garage and desk. The housework is mainly done by Mieke in between playing computer games, bridge and reading, I help with the cooking and we are getting along brilliantly. Gloria I have mentioned before about living in paradise I will send a photo up and await your comment if any.A small white dot on the left is about where we live. Love you ALL. Jack
I think most... wait, make that all, Feng Shui masters will say the first order of business in life energy management is,-- to do away with needless clutter.
This allows the free flow of energy, prosperity, freshness etc. to come in, and more easily too.
Some people are more anal about clutter and house cleaning than others. We would do well to consider asking ourselves this question:
How do we feel when our homes and spaces are neat and in order? Do we feel better as a result of this order?
Most people do. Some much less so. So the real question is asking how we "feel" and to what degree of this order (or non order) makes us feel the best. That is the important question to answer.
The answer differs within each of us and our own current customizing and changing awareness.
I agree about your very wise "real question", Marko. Whenever we feel pressured or influenced by some standard of cleaning or order from the outside ourselves, the motivation is not authentically our own. How freeing to understand that our own standard is the only one we have to abide by.
Beloved Ones, please don't think that I enjoy a cluttered house. It is not my preference. I don't advocate putting everything before housecleaning. I don't think anyone enjoys a less than neat immaculate house.
Also, please don't think I don't have high standards. I do have very high standards. The only thing is that I don't always live up to them. I often don't.
Housekeeping IS important to me. Heavenletters and Godwriting are my priority, however.
I know that someone else who had the responsibilities I do could take good care of Heavenletters and all and still have a neat immaculate house.
When I lived in Sacramento, I had a neighbor with eight young children. I believe the oldest was eight. Her house was immaculate. Nothing out of place. This young mother didn't go outside to work in her garden, something she loved, until after everything in the house was done. That meant she didn't get outside until after three in the afternoon or later than that.
I don't have the discipline nor the management style this young woman had. I would have gone out and done the garden first.
But now I put Heavenletters first, and I don't really garden any more either!
Yes, I do enjoy a clean house. I just don't enjoy cleaning house. I also really don't enjoy a totally "immaculate" home. I like a lived in house. One with a magazine here and a pile of books there. I liked the style that was called "shabby chic," or, in my case, "garage sale find I never got around to refinishing or painting." TOO clean and sterile makes me nervous, for some reason. (Except, of course, in an operating room.) Long, long ago I sold vacuum cleaners (hey, I was very young). This particular kind captures dirt in water, so part of the demo was to use their vacuum to clean an area then go over it with my cleaner (not supposted to call it a vacuum). It never failed to pick up additional dirt and deposit it in the water. Except once. This woman's home was SOOOOO clean and dust free (her husband was a surgeon and she was a nurse) that they could literally have done surgery there. It was, I'm sure, cleaner than an operating room. Needless to say, I did not make that sale!
Clutter is one thing, though, and dirt is another. I don't care if the living is a bit messy. My bedroom is a disaster (only until I finish up the laundry). BUT a clean and sanitary kitchen and bathroom are necessities.
Especially the kitchen now when it's canning time.
I think I bought one of the kind of vacuum you're talking about around here used for $25.00! When I do a thorough cleaning, I use it, and it's wonderful. There is nothing like it!
My mouth is watering for your corn on the cob you mention on another post. I forgot t to say I would have it for breakfast too!