Rearranging the center of the world

Aug. 21, 2003

Dear Julie,

I am in awe of the two women who reassemble our house every two weeks. Two weeks is the amount of time it takes DC and me to bring the house into disorder. Of course, Hank and Lucy and Alvie do their part. Life with dog hair is one of our realities. So is the probability that one of the dogs will be in the mood to rip a misplaced cardboard food container into bite-sized bits.

When we cleaned the house ourselves, the job of keeping up with the household's potential for descending into chaos seemed almost overwhelming. DC usually did not participate in the slovenliness, but she has her quirks. When sorting through the week's mail, she throws the envelopes and junk mail on the floor. It's as if she's creating the greatest possible separation between the good and the bad.

A psychologist might be required to explain. So you see, having our house cleaned is not a luxury. It is a matter of mental health.

Lisa and her mother, Karma, have a talent for putting our little world right. No, it's more than a talent. It's a calling. They are restorers of peace and serenity. They were feng shui-ing before feng shui became cool.

In our house, their biggest challenge is the kitchen table. It is the repository for everything brought home during the two weeks. We think we're just temporarily laying down the papers from work and the package of nails and the card we mean to send. Day after day new piles arrive until the table disappears under heaps of procrastination.

Then Lisa and Karma arrive and reclaim the table once again before leaving. A bowl filled with ripe fruit we didn't know we had sits alone in the center. We don't know where the items that once cluttered the table have gone. Lisa and Karma have found a home for them. When we go looking later on we find them in a sensible place.

One of my favorite moments is coming home on the day they've cleaned and smelling the Murphy Oil Soap they've worked into the wood floor. This is a scent I hope is in heaven.

Women tend to be picky about how other women clean their house. DC sent our first house cleaner on her way for clearing the dishwasher in an unsuitable manner. There's no such kibitzing about what Lisa and Karma do. Every two weeks, we feel like celebrating.

Maybe I make too much of this. After all, they are just cleaning our house. But I have watched them work as I was leaving for my own work. There is joy in them for rearranging a particle of the universe. Putting things back in their place is something they love to do.

While living in Northern California at the end of the 1970s, I was allowed to witness a sacred ceremony the Karuk Indians call the White Deerskin Dance. It is held every two years at a place on Clear Creek they call the Center of the World.

The purpose of the White Deer Skin Dance is to put the world back in balance. It acknowledges that our heads and our hearts and our lives get out of kilter. Periodically we need to stop and restore harmony in our lives, to rearrange ourselves.

The Center of the World needs rebalancing every two years. The center of our world needs it every two weeks.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.