PRESTO!

Yesterday our house was transformed. We had moved out two weeks ago, but every floor of the house hosted piles of the unwanted. Five years in a big house creates an unhealthy vacuum. Bedspreads, duvets, blankets, throws of all kinds. They came from every corner of every closet, like an unsolicited magic act. The over-sized furniture which would have obliterated any open space in our two-bedroom apartment was scattered about the house. 

The clean-out crew materialized with a 20-foot truck around 10 AM. The three strong men worked tirelessly for almost three hours. The truck was packed from floor to ceiling. Every shelf, every cabinet and every corner of the house was emptied. This also seemed magical, given the disorderly state it had been in after we moved out.

An ancient Japanese Buddhist saying states: Person environment one. 

As I vacuumed empty wood floors and shelves after the truck pulled away, I experienced a profound feeling of relief. The echoing emptiness of the rooms was a welcomed sound. Sunlight was reflected off the shiny floors. No secrets were hidden in the corners of closed spaces. I experienced the deep satisfaction of passing this open space to its new caretakers. 

My satisfaction was soon interrupted by the discovery of a thin cassette holder in the corner of a corridor between Peter's bathroom and closet. Its shelves were packed with Peter's long-forgotten teacup collection. The temptation to open a window and toss the whole thing into the driveway passed quickly. Clearing that up would have been worse than chucking the thing out on trash day in a garbage bag. 

I grumbled on with my vacuuming. I had asked the crew to leave several bottles of French wine on their rack in the basement. I found them undisturbed. They had languished there since the last visit of our friends from Bordeaux a couple of years ago. I thought they would be a nice gift to the new occupants. This cheered me up as I finished my vacuuming upstairs in the kitchen. For some reason, I opened the pantry cabinet in the far corner of the kitchen. I had thought I had scoured every shelf thoroughly, but I discovered two stemmed wine glasses in the corner of the uppermost shelf. Many of life's surprises are challenging. Some of life's surprises just leave me shaking my head with a broad smile.