Friday, July 17, 2009

The fumes of bleach broke something loose in my head today



Today I spent a good 3 hours cleaning up the kitchen of my boyfriend's casa. What was I thinking? Am I crazy?

Like most, I am one to love a clean space, but like most people, I am NOT one to enjoy the process of cleaning it! But this morning I woke up, put on my orange sweats and a white (but now musty colored) see-through, raggy tank-top, and I slipped into some slippers (to protect my feets from the poblano pepper crumbs and other sticky deposits on the floor) and with complete gusto, I attacked the piles of dishes and other unidentified objects in my boy's kitch with whatever cleaning utensils I could gather. It was bombastical.

But all of this got me thinking (besides how much I secretly love blasting Norah Jones when I am being all domestic), that I really get a kick outta helping other people, when in all reality, I need some good ol' help myself! (Don't come into my kitchen right now unless you want to know what I am talking about).

So I am here to ask: Why is it easier for us to help clean up the mess that others make, but not our own? Do you constantly find yourself cleaning up after someone or being Mr. Fix it for anybody and everybody, and on top of it all, do you sometimes even find yourself enjoying it? What is it about our nature that is so willing to lend a helping hand to a loved one, but at the same time, is so unwilling to take our own hand and make it do a little labor for the good of ourselves? C'mon, we are selfish beings, why can't we do that for ourselves?

Maybe I have it all wrong here. Maybe the general public's consensis is that it is easier to clean your own mess up than somebody else's, or maybe it is most preferred to have somebody else clean up your mess for you? (Heck there wouldn't be cleaning services around if this wasn't the case). Whichever/whatever it is, today I realized that I do not like spending time keeping my place tidy--even though I feel 100 times better when I am organized and tidy and clutter-free. So what's the deal?

Something else I have known all my life is that it makes my day to help others- be it job searching for someone, moving a pal's belongings up 5 flights of stairs, cleaning hair out of the shower drains, or just being there to receive empty but needed ventilations. As long as I am needed I feel good. And it isn't wrong that I like to help or that I enjoy myself while doing it, BUT, what is wrong is that I don't help myself in these areas.

So today I proclaim that I need to create some greater incentives to get myself to do unpleasant but necessary tasks for myself as well! After all, we are stronger individuals if we take good care of ourselves, and the more solid we are in our own beings, the better helper we can be to others. :)

In a nutshell, I am a true DIY person or want to be, and lately I haven't taken the time to do it myself, so I ain't being true and I gotta get to fixing it! So with that said, I must stop this post immediately, because there is a lot to be accomplished today!