Aselin

I spent my day cleaning out a pantry and setting up a nursery in preparation for the homecoming of a newborn. Thankfully, not mine. This joyful event was long in the coming, yet like most of us the new mother finds herself unprepared. When I arrived at the home to help I was given a tour by the proud papa who had completely re-tiled the bottom floor of the home. It was a lovely job, but the residue of ripping out the old tile had completely taken over the rest of the house. All of their belongings, and I do mean all, were blanketed with a heavy coat of tile dust.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of enduring a remodeling project then you know of what I speak. Remodel dirt invades like the evil fog in a horror movie. As I surveyed the scene I was dumbfounded and certainly rethinking the “help” I had so freely offered. What’s funny is how the papa seemed quite oblivious that this may not be the best environment in which to bring a new baby. We humans are funny creatures. One person’s cyclone is another person’s normal.

The couple also has dogs. Three dogs. As I begin this musing I had to blow dog hair off my laptop keyboard. You’re not livin’ until you’re covered in tile dust and dog hair.

It’s amazing how we all have a disaster somewhere in our lives we are quite comfortable with. I have lots of them. I am amazingly adept at stepping over them, or completely pretending they’re not there. Some of them are physical, like my laundry room that goes from OCD order to Katrina disaster and back faster than lickety split. (I don’t know what lickety split is, but I understand it’s really, really fast). Some of them are emotional. Old wounds that have scarred but not healed and rear their ugly heads at seemingly incongruent moments.

I think we all put blinders on to our disasters so we can get through the day, forge ahead, and carry on. I have great admiration for the souls among us who are actually brave enough to clean up, and rebuild after their disasters. Looking around at all the tile dust makes me want to get back home to try and clean up all my own crap everyone else can see so clearly, but the truth is I’m not sure I’ll ever have my blinders completely off.