CREATING ORDER

Today, if anyone asked me what I did all day, I would have to admit that I deliberately and consciously created order in my life.

I found untidy spots and made them neat. I sorted through storage areas and vacuumed up the dust bunnies and spider webs. I swept and wiped and organized and stacked. I spray painted the rusty basketball hoop and hung a new basket. I cleaned the cats’ litter box area. I filled two huge boxes for the Epilepsy Foundation truck that comes through once a month to pick up donations. I got the garbage can all ready for the truck when it comes tomorrow. I walked three miles as orderly as I could—a steady pace on a nice, neat trail that goes straight east and west.

For some reason, it was very important today that I create order and be orderly.

In the early afternoon, I picked up my 89-year-old mother at the assisted living and took her to visit my 91-year-old father at the nursing home. He admitted he had had a “bad spell” after breakfast, and that he had thought, “This is it.” But it was 2 p.m. and he was still sitting in his chair, so it was a false alarm.

So I went home and washed rugs and put new cypress mulch on the perennial flower beds. I took down a dilapidated clothes line and replaced it with a hanging plant full of bright orange begonias. I vacuumed out the back of the car and swept the garage. I pulled weeds and trimmed dead branches.

So much in our lives is so totally out of our control—with chaos taking over suddenly and unexpectedly. It’s nice once in a while to just feel like everything is neat and orderly and tidy. And that for just one day, all the dust bunnies are vacuumed up and all cluttered corners are organized—and all the bad spells are false alarms.