new eyes

I looked around my house the other day and saw clutter. Clutter everywhere, clutter as far as the eye could see. Wow, I thought, my place looks like a bomb hit it. How did I end up living like this?

Then I took a deep breath, and looked again with new eyes. And everything I saw was a sign of learning.

Books on the couch, drawings on the desks, lego on the floor, cardboard constructions on all the surfaces, toys being made, and toy worlds in various states of existence and dismantlement (not a word, but I don't care!). They were all a sign that my kids were busy: creating, thinking, doing, being.

So I decided to look at my house instead as the Artists' Studio. Or perhaps our Lab? Or maybe our Workshop of the Mind. A place where thoughts and ideas brew and spread and get together to make new thoughts and ideas… (and where hardly anything ever gets put away!)

And I felt a whole lot better.

But then (in fact just this moment) I read the blog of my new friend, Jessica.

She is making room in her home, taking the things she doesn't need and finding a place for them where they might be needed (and wanted and loved) more. Goodwill, Freecycle, her church—stuff is leaving her house and bringing with it a whole lot of heart.

I'm sure there are many, many things in our house that could be elsewhere. Not necessarily the clutter (I mean, ahem, valuable stuff), that is currently being used, but the things crammed on shelves, in boxes, in cupboards, all these quiet and unused, waiting things. They could be bringing someone else joy, right this very minute.

So, I might have to look around with new eyes, all over again.