Today is one of those days. I have been up and about, doing, this and that, plus that and this, quite the bundle of energy. In fact if I were to have spent this day in front of the laptop, I probably could have churned out all thirty-one posts for the month of July. But that, naturally so, was not to be, since writing blog posts is not the only thing in my itinerary.

Much of that outburst of energy was hence utilized in cooking, dusting, checking Facebook and WhatsApp on smartphone, putting out the clothes to dry, bathing the dog and such mundane stuff a homemaker gets to do. Don’t get me wrong. Mundane is the word used by the world, but for me it is anything but.

When there is just such energy coursing through me, if I am not careful, I tend to go overboard, especially with the cooking part of my work. It is like, ‘ Okay, I will make this dish, and the other one too and may be yet another.’ With just two of us at home there is certainly no need for me to make too much at one go. But I do all the same. The reason? I live in uncertainty.

Today I am full of energy, raring to go. Tomorrow I could wake up and find I am nothing but a limp rag, good for absolutely nothing, which it so happens is my default status these days. On such days, I mope around the house doing nothing at all. Well, that’s not true, I drag my feet about and do whatever is essential. It is on such days that the overdoing on my part on other days, the extra that I have cooked, comes in handy. Limp though any rag might be, it IS besieged by hunger pangs and needs its fair share of nourishment. Having something ready in the refrigerator saves the rag’s day keeping it from getting any more limper.

Talking of overdoing things, there is something I learnt the hard way. Work at home never ever gets over. There will at the very least be that one cup or spoon lying unwashed in the sink, especially in a house with growing children. Okay I admit, grown up children too, or even when the children have left and there are only two old fogies left (plus a dog).

For years, I tried to FINISH EVERYTHING before sitting down. But to my chagrin I found that except for meal times, the TIME TO SIT DOWN never really came. Then one day it dawned on me, why I was doing it (more on it on another post), and how it was utterly foolish of me to try and finish the never-ending. I told myself:

You idiot, you don’t HAVE TO finish EVERYTHING to do that. Just let it be and SIT DOWN and RELAX. There are more important things in life than keeping a sink free of dirty dishes. While you are polishing and cleaning, putting away shoes, straightening curtains and cushions, so much is happening out there, interesting stuff, stuff to watch, stuff to read, stuff to feel. 

That’s it. The day I realized the same I stopped feeling guilty about housework left undone. I still do what’s necessary. If there is a surge of energy then of course, more gets done, if not, nothing at all. And I tell guilt to go take a walk. I am a much happier person for it.

©Shail Mohan 2015