Autumn is threading in and out of all things now. Windows are only open for bits of the day. Jumpers are often not quite enough. The grass is having a last dance with fair amounts of rain and sun willing it onwards. But it seems that before Autumn waltzes in fully dressed, Spring is not content to slumber. And this week some spring cleaning took hold of me. It felt good. I really didn’t have time, but time said it was right. 

We all have some long-ignored part of the house which is attended to once a lifetime. Perhaps when we decorate or move house. In one of the rooms here, a workspace, there are three big globe lights suspended from the ceiling. The workspace makes them dusty and, as they are see-through, its noticeable. But without many visitors, and certainly none who would be in there, they’ve been ignored, even though the other parts of the room are attended to with a weekly tidy, hoover, mop and dust. 

I found myself up a ladder. Realised suddenly their cleaning would take no more than 20 minutes. I washed and shone the big globes until they gleamed, grime gone, sparkle reinstated. Whilst I was up there, the cupboard top was prepared as if the queen was going to sleep on it wearing a white gown. Quickly lined it with newspaper so that next time the cleaning would be simpler. 

It sounds like I’m either (a) a little obsessed, (b) a little loopy or (c) short on things to do. It was none of that. It was because I’m growing, and when we grow, we need to shed stuff. I needed to shed the bullying, passive aggressive comments about them. A few years ago, my mother scowled at them and said she couldn’t wait to get up there. She’s not really the domestic goddess that her scowl suggests, it’s confusing. She did go up there and cleaned, and I felt nothing. 

But this weekend, I feel good looking at those three large globes. I tended to them when it was right. Not when I was surviving. Not when I was clinging. Not when I was saving another. But when I could. And I did. Squeezed it in, even better. It needed its moment and I trusted it would come. As my son said, next time it gets done it’s for the new people. Yes. That. Thank you, child of mine! We move on. We don’t stay stuck. And we don’t stay frightened. We move forward. Proud today that he taught it back.

What is next for washing?

Love from

The room above the garage

A Moodscope member.