the journey of cleaning

Eventually we'll be having either a Saturday poster or a Saturday guest poster... but until then you'll have a double dose of me each week... take it for what it is ;)


Anyway... this morning I was cleaning, I'm taking a break at the moment to write this and if you came into my lovely little Victorian apartment you would notice it looks like a disaster. It's currently in the state of deep cleaning where things appear worse than when you started... You know you've put in work at this point, but it's a little disheartening to look around and see that everything appears MORE out of control... makes you start to wonder if this was a good idea or not... if maybe the slight clutter and dust you had at the beginning was really all that bad.

However, it's this in between moment that is necessary to truly get a good clean. You have to take everything out to ensure you got it all.. and when you're done? That in-between state was worth it. When you look around and see everything clean and renewed looking, it's a feeling of accomplishment. You're able to live better in a way.

With things such as cleaning, we wouldn't just leave our homes in this state of half-clean. We don't abandon the project.. decide that it's not worth it, that what you had going on before wasn't actually that terrible... Why? Because it needs to be done and the process is part of it.

I think sometimes when we're dealing with problems or struggles though we tend to do abandon it mid-way... as that in-between stage can be uncomfortable emotionally - which actually means we've come a long way

We start to question if the end product is really that much better than what we started with (the issue/problem).  While that middle stage may have you wondering, remember other things in your life that have the same pattern. I mention cleaning as that happened to be applicable to me today but even things such as riding a bike. Learning to ride one is hard when you're little and frustrating... and you start to wonder if riding a bike is really that cool of a thing to do... but when you've learned it... it was worth it.

Don't lose sight of the fact that though the middle stage may seem worse or harder than the beginning ones, it's worth it... Since the ante is SO much higher for recovery, continuing on is that much more beautiful - the end product of living rather than existing is completely worth it.