Clear house, clear mind

We returned home last night after a day spent out for Mother’s Day. We’d also spent the day before that out at Erik’s parents’ house (and I went yard-saling in the morning), and two days before that we’d gone to Palo Alto for the afternoon and evening. Three days before that I had my colonoscopy. So it was a rather tiring week, full of driving around, and wearying events that needed recovery time. When we arrived home yesterday evening, I looked around the kitchen and suddenly realized the house was a total mess — counters spotted with unidentifiable food residue, hallway filled with various bags and boxes of things we’d brought back from San Jose, here and there a yard-sale find I hadn’t put away yet, collage scraps all over the dining table, etc etc. I was fairly tired already, but after the mess finally hit me, I felt incredibly drained. So I resolved to make today a pick-up-the-pieces day.

I began my morning with a wonderfully invigorating yoga class with David Schlussel at 7th Heaven, and he told us about his wife Rosy’s classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at a different, new studio not far away, thus making it possible for me to go to yoga every weekday — which I might try this week. Erik and I stopped to get groceries on the way back, and then after lunch I immediately began clearing up. I assiduously tidied both desks, sorted many papers, responded to emails, and did three or four loads of laundry. It was very satisfying, and I even came up with a new method for organizing my magazine clippings (the kind I keep for content, not the collage ones). I didn’t get my morning pages done today, nor did I actually make any art, but I feel more centered and my mind is more clear after doing this important preliminary creative step of tidying the house. (I also didn’t play Spider Solitaire all day!) There’s still more tidying to be done, but this will do for today. Tomorrow I’ll check out Rosy’s new class, finish the tidying, begin planting some of our new seeds, and go from there.