Cleaning and Reminiscing

I have the day off work today thanks to many, many, MANY brave people who fought for our country. Many of those people gave up everything so I could sleep at night. That's the ultimate sacrifice-- giving up your own life for the sake of someone else's. Reminds me of the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus Christ, for the very same reasons. In order to save my life, He gave up his own.

So, because of those brave and important people, I am at home today. The goal? TO CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!!!!!! My dad is coming to visit me in three days for the first time in four years, so that is super motivating factor. It's not like I'm a slob or anything, but when you work full-time, go to school full-time, try to start a business, and have two cats and a life, things get kind of hectic and the organizational factor goes waaaaaay down at home (at least for me). I acquired a TON (literally) of stuff to open a business, and since the storage unit is stuffed floor to ceiling, a lot of stuff ended up in my apartment wherever I could find the room.

I am the kind of person who has "organized messes." I usually know exactly where things are in the chaos, and if I move it, then I am up a creek without a paddle and can't find anything. However, I can only deal with organized messes for so long. Then I snap and freak out because I feel internally cluttered because my external world is cluttered. So, for the reasons stated above, I have acquired a large "organized mess," but I am determined to purge and be rid of it THIS WEEK!

This posting is a break from cleaning. As I was going through stacks of pay stubs, student loan papers, old day planners, cards, notes, and letters, a thought occurred to me. I felt like at that moment I was not only on a quest to see my bedroom floor again, but I was taking a personal trip back through time. I've been in a reflective state lately, thinking about life experiences and old relationships, and the what-ifs from all of that (what-ifs are BAD, BAD, BAD!!). For me, cleaning and organizing my home to prepare for a visit has much more meaning than simply having a clean kitchen floor or nice vacuum lines in the carpet. I find that it gives me the opportunity to free my mind and revisit days gone by as I go through old mail and other stuff. Does anyone else feel the same?