marvelous action!
Chopping wood,
carrying water…”
from Zen Forest, written more than 1000
years ago, by a Chinese Zen Master
translated by Soiku Sigematsu
I realized something over the weekend that kind of, well, I suppose I can’t say it startled me but made me realize something that I never think of. While we all know and understand the need for social isolation now for health reasons and they are very real and important, the thing that struck me is how absolutely crazy people are going because they can’t, or should not be, leaving their houses. The point being that this is normal life for me and I am completely comfortable and at ease here as I always am.
No, I’m no social butterfly and life is not, by any means, what I’d call easy for me with my mental health issues and agoraphobia, but, given that I have been living with them for a very long time I have created and settled into a very fulfilling, very full, life here. It always amuses me when someone asks me what I do all day, you know, since I “don’t leave the house” except on rare occasions, and I just have to laugh. From the time I open my eyes in the morning until I go to sleep at night I am busy every single moment of the day.
I have my household to take care of, my animals, I am at this computer most of the day writing and doing my work and going back and forth between the computer and drawing and painting as I create Maisie’s World and work on her book. And then I have to keep jumping up and down to take Molly out to the potty, to put in another load of wash or put the wash in the dryer, fix our meals, clean out the fish tanks and the birds cage and right now I am in and out working in the garden from morning until dark. After dark Molly and I may be in the attached garage which, in the front section, I have my “potting shed.” We are potting up seeds and bulbs and other things and there are just endless things to do. And then over the weekend I had to repot all the amaryllis inside because they have all gotten so huge they were falling over. I repotted them in large pots and they look grand. And on and on and on. By night time I am pooped! Somewhere past 10 Molly and I snuggle up in the oversized recliner that we sleep in and turn Netflix on but I swear 10 minutes into whatever the heck I put on I am sound asleep. I haven’t had cable tv in years and the tv with Netflix is never on all day until just before bed. There simply isn’t time. Too much life to live here, too much to do.
What this all makes me wonder — and trust me, this is no judgment or criticism, it is puzzling to me — is why in the world people are going so crazy having to be at home. Of course I understand people missing family and friends, and inconveniences born of not being able to go out to get things you might need, but I am talking about, or wondering about, how people cannot, finally, just be comfortable in their own home. And of course even in isolation there are cell phones, computers, tablets, all manner of staying in touch with the outside world, and there is Netflix and all the streaming channels for endless entertainment, but do people not read books? Have hobbies? Household chores that never seem to get done in people’s busy lives in the workaday world? Cleaning the house, cleaning out closets and cabinets and drawers, cleaning out the garage, rearranging the furniture for a new look, making things, all kind of things, planting a garden, even if you are in an apartment you can plant in pots for a sunny window or balcony. There is never enough time for me to do all the things I’d like to do in any given day so it makes me wonder what people are doing, or not doing, or have forgotten how to do? Maybe it’s time to get back in touch with whatever you call home, clean it, make it pretty, make art, read those books you never got around to reading or reread old favorites.
This is a Chop Wood, Carry Water kind of time. When all the basic essentials that make a home and a life and for which there is never enough time to get around to can finally be done. Can you imagine how wonderful it might feel when you return to your busy life in the big world having put your house in order and made it shiny and clean and having bagged up all the things you have meant to get rid of to donate somewhere and taken time to cook really good meals that take time to cook because you are usually too tired at the end of a day? You can go back to your life in the outside world rested, restored, enriched, and re-energized and at the end of your busy days out in the world again you can come back to what could feel like a whole new house. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about.
Magical power, marvelous action, chopping wood, carrying water. The mundane, everyday things become the glorious ones, and I think if people embrace what is possible for them at home in this time their lives will be forever enriched and never the same again.
Just a thought, from my home to yours…
Such a perfect pause Divine Miss Maitri !! The Marvelous miracle of the Mundane thak yo for your beautiful words and Pictures Just Delightful ~Amber
Thank you so much dear Amber, I feel shy to share my thoughts from my little corner of the world and yet I am hoping they might help someone. We all need to do what we can do at this time and some of us without money and never being really out in the world anyway feel that we have little to offer. If I share my thoughts perhaps it will help someone. Your kind words mean more to me than you will ever know…
Blessings and Love,
Maitri
as usual, you put it all so well. remembering that some people are worried about finances, because their business/restaurant closed down, or having to cope with having young children around all day, or no one to mow their lawns for them, remembering that, the questions you raise are worthy of answering, each one of us.
i am endlessly gardening (read: weeding that’s gotten totally out of hand), making bouquets, sending pics of bouquets to friends, writing poems, cleaning our toilets,
making lunch and dinner for me and tom (he does all the dishes); watering my garden, wishing it would rain! reading of course. even with the library closed i have many books in piles i can finally focus my attention on. i feed my cat twice a day. i make coffee twice a day. i take a long hot shower after getting all sweaty. I take a nap. i do the crossword puzzle in the paper. i watch old meg ryan movies on netflix with my hubby. i read the magazines that come in the mail, and send loving healing blessings to all affected (which is all of us) by this pandemic… and so on and so on. making a list like this is valuable. people addicted to coffee shops and shopping in the mall and drinking wine with friends around the kitchen table late at night, are having a hard time adjusting to a new reality. it will take time to sink in. your blog is a helpful reminder. xo ka
Ah dear Ka of course I know there are people affected in very hard ways, my own family members are among them, and I didn’t mean to sound as though I were discounting that, what I was thinking about is how strange and sad people cannot, for a time, settle in to where they are and have peaceful, fulfilling times in their own home. I know that one such as me who is almost never NOT home cannot fully understand people whose mental well-being depends on interractions in the outside world. And yet home is home, and in my heart I so hope that people can enjoy, even given all that’s going on, time in their own little nest, and make it cozy and warm, and do those things at home there are never enough time to do.
I do know how busy you stay and I loved reading all about it again. You are far more of a going out and communing with people sort of person than I am of course and yet we both have very home-centered hearts, and the garden, and books and more. I just pray for people to find ease and rest, in this current time, in their homes because it seems for most people there is never enough time for that. What I wrote was in no way a judgment of others, just a wish that they find peace and joy at home while their lives are centered there.
So much to think of…
I hope you and Tom stay well, and I can’t imagine you cutting bouquets because here our gardens are just greening up, not much blooming, but things are surely starting, and it is so exciting. But weeds! Oh girlfriend, I DO know about weeds! Ha! May we continue to revel in everything, flowers, weeds, all of it!
Love,
M. xoxox
Yes, agreed. I’m an introvert LOVE being alone and isolated. I used to FANTASIZE about YOUR life. I’m on my 2nd week. Instead of doing busy things last week I was numb, scared and overwhelmed. So I slept ALOT. This week I finally started moving my body. Weird thing is my vacay is isolating in the woods ALONE. Yet, being told to. Being ordered to. The chaos and stuff that’s happening here. Our numbers in Florida are moving fast. There’s updates every hour or two with new numbers. So I stay off the news, immerse myself in your blog and I’m good. It’s a scary time. My second meltdown was this morning, most days I’m accepting this is our normal now. Thank you so much for sharing your talent with all of us!!!
You fantasized about MY life?! Gracious! No one has ever told me THAT before! Ha ha ha! Well it sounds to me that isolating in the woods would be a lovely thing, and of course people are scared and overwhelmed by everything that’s happening. I am just hoping and praying amidst it all people can find some peaceful, gentle cozy times in their own homes. I so wish that for people. And sleeping is good, it allows the body to rest and heal in all manner of ways, so by all means sleep if you need to. I have been getting up much later than I usually do, allowing myself, once I get up early-ish and go potty to just snuggle back in with Molly and go to sleep for awhile and it feels good. I just sat down here with my coffee a short time ago and it’s noon! That’s unheard of for me. Of course I was up at 10:30 but I have a lot to do taking care of the animals before I can make coffee, but it is a soft, quiet sort of day, grey, raining, and somehow very peaceful. I hope you have a peaceful restful day too dearheart. You are in my heart…