Higher Consciousness Through Happy Homemaking

In the undertaking of any endeavor, it is said that attitude is the number one determining factor for success.  There is no denying it, the minute you tie on an apron, roll up your sleeves to wash the dishes, drag out the vacuum cleaner or pour disinfectant into the toilet, you’ve entered the realm of servile labor.  It doesn’t matter who you are, even if you’ve earned your Ph.D., no one is exempt.  So in order to be truly effective, you must develop the right attitude.  Attitude counts for ninety percent of the success factor in life!  For that reason alone some inner inventory must be done.  In order to get anything accomplished, resistance to your work must be examined, reckoned with and removed.

To be a worthwhile servant, one must develop a certain degree of humility and a willingness to acquiesce.  This may sound complex, but it isn’t.  If you look up the word “humble” in the dictionary it says: 

“Humble:  humulus, low, akin to earth,” (according to Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary).

In looking at the nature of the word humble in connection to housework, I see it like this. We live on the soil of the earth and depend on it for our survival.  Yet, housecleaning is a constant and deliberate endeavor to keep wayward dirt under control.  We are perpetually working to combat it.  Essentially, we are either pushing it around with brooms and dust mops, inventing deadly chemicals to melt it, disintegrate it, wipe it away.  We have devised machines that suck it up into little bags, which we later throw away.  We have shampoos to wash it out of our hair.  We shake it out of our clothes and throw them into machines to agitate and rinse the dirt down the drain.  Where does all this dirt go?  It goes back to the earth from whence it came.  Do you remember the old “ashes to ashes” saying?  Isn’t this our very essence? . . . and so it goes.  We begin as dust, we end up as dust, and we do a whole lot of dusting in between.  Now, doesn’t that make you feel humble?

This is similar to the concept of Aikido in that you become one with the enemy, but in this case, potentially, you already are.  Once you have accepted your role as a humble servant, you can work freely, without resistance always bearing in mind that dirt is inevitable.  Isn’t there a bumper sticker that says, “Dirt happens?" 

In order to have a servant, there must also be a master.  In this case you are both the servant and the master and your labors are primarily for your own enjoyment, discipline, exercise and focus.  Through this means, you can enjoy the fruits of your own labor, not to mention the added benefit of being able to find anything you own in total darkness.  You can and will be the creator of your own environment, which by the way, you already are, possibly without realizing it.  However, this time it will be deliberate, with purpose and on purpose. 

Like a corporate magnate, you will always be on the lookout for more quality, better efficiency, greater cost effectiveness and a higher level of productivity.

As a spiritual being unfolding, you will always be directing energy in a positive and creative direction.  Breathing life into both your home and your spiritual self, having a focus, an intention, and an ongoing project.  This is essentially being at the helm of your life, fully in charge of the control panel of your innermost workings.

It would be helpful if you were to think of yourself as having multiple identities, numerous facets within the one personality, each one of these possessing its separate and individual distinction, all equally important in comprising the whole.

If you give this concept some serious thought, you will see that in a sense you already do possess multiple selves.  Consider for a moment the number of identities you presently carry around in your personality.  For example, who is it that your mother expected you to be?  What were the modes of behavior she demanded of you?  What kinds of words did she most often use towards you?  What perceptions of yourself did you decode in her overall message?  When were you considered “good” in her eyes?  When were you considered “bad?”  Our mother, in most cases, was the first female authority figure and we have absorbed her teachings, role modeling and behavior into our personalities in our most tender years.