Chores

I am big on routine chores and a regular schedule for them. I made the remarkable discovery that even the most distasteful chores, like ironing, could be made less distasteful by simply doing them during a dedicated period each week. My happiest discovery came when I found that a weekly cleaning of my space after an initial blitz yielded an easily maintained level of shining floors and dustless flat surfaces. Previously I had postponed cleaning for weeks out of distaste for the process and then suffered through grueling catch-up.

 

A well maintained personal environment is priceless in the development of an uncluttered mind. Chores postponed add subtle stress and distraction. Learning to keep abreast of routine chores is a step to keeping abreast of more unpredictable demands on time and effort.

 

On the other side of boredom with routine chores is a certain pleasure in them. Thursday afternoons end with a satisfied appreciation with the shining floors in my bedroom. Tuesday nights bring the joy of slipping between crisp sheets on a turned mattress. Learning to appreciate these small pleasures is a form of opening the mind to life's most basic joys. These joys are often taken for granted by those who have not experienced poverty, homelessness or extreme disability.

 

Understanding the value of basic human needs which can be fulfilled simply by attention and routine opens the eyes to the shame of poverty in our wealthy world. Living simply and responsibly is the humanist way of individually being conscious and ethical in society. Words do not comprise practice. Practice is behavior and the shaping of the mind with healthy living. Learning to live simply and responsibly by tending my own life and my own environment opens my mind to how much can be shared with those who are less lucky in life.