ISo I've just got to go back to the post about dirty dishes. It was so ironic to come across that quote because I had a busy bee in my bonnet on Sunday and was clearing up piles and throwing things away, paying bills and getting organized, all while doing the laundry too! I was just in that mode, and it really felt good!
I found Gunilla Norris' quote in the book Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I've used quotes from her book many times. And I just felt like I had to include a bit more about what she had written along with the quote.
Mother Ann Lee, who founded the United Society of Believers in the First and Second Appearance of Christ in 1774, instructed her followers to remember that order was heaven's first law. "There is no dirt in heaven," she counseled her charges. Members of the Shaker "Family" were to keep their personal belongings and tools in such perfect order that they could be found at a moment's notice, day or night. To accomplish this, the Shakers elevated order to a sacred art: just to gaze at the exquisite beauty and brilliance of Shaker built-in drawers and cupboards is to know that in the House of Spirit a sublime pine cubbyhole awaits with your name on it. The Shakers believed that their daily work, including housekeeping, was a personal expression of worship.
Now believe me, I am not an avid housekeeper myself, and as much as I would love to see my housekeeping as some sort of worship, I'm not quite there--although maybe if I thought about it a bit more while contemplating at my sink, I might come up with some version of that that works for me! But what I loved most about that paragraph was the phrase that "in the House of Spirit a sublime pine cubbyhole awaits with your name on it." Something about that pine cubbyhole just got me! Maybe it is the idea of just snuggling in and finding our place. I'm not quite sure what it was, but I just found something really appealing about a clean little cubbyhole waiting for me.
