Today I woke up (not such an uncommon occurrence). Today the sun was shining. Today the skies were blue. Today I got dressed, went outside, and began watering.

Today I went back in the house, assessed the situation of cleaning and said out loud (no one else was home) “God – I can’t do this today.”

I was referring to the condition of the house. You see, it’s a mess. The floors need mopping, the carpet needs vacuumming, the dishes needed washing, the laundry needs laundering, the bathrooms need scouring, and if I were really, really ambitious, in my list there would include window cleaning as well. However, I didn’t feel ambitious. You see, if I were to do all of that cleaning (which I would do and have done), that would mean I’d have to pick up one-thousand, eight-hundred, and forty-seven items in order to do the floors, the carpets, the dishes, and so on.

One-thousand, eight-hundred and forty-seven miscellaneous items including, but not limited to – unpaired socks, gasoline receipts, paper clips, loose change, paint infested shirts and shorts, sleeping bags, coats, half-filled glasses of some kind of soda, juice, or water, pens, pencils, books in each and every room and so on. You get the picture… Blessing or curse?

I left my son home alone while I took a jaunt down to Arizona to visit my doctor. Upon my return home, I walked in the back door, put my purse on the washing machine, saw my son who was standing with his head out the back door (the cell phone reception is much better that way), heard him say to the unidentified person on the other end, ‘Hang on a sec’, while he mouthed to me, ‘You didn’t call and tell me when you’d be home or I would have cleaned up’. I bet you’re getting a much clearer picture now…

So, after having just ended a very long, eight-hour drive, I went straight to the restroom, without getting mad. You see – I prepared for this moment, expecting the very worst and to be quite honest and giving my son some credit – it really could have been worse. There could have been 1,947 pieces of what-not strewn across the floor.

I came out of the bathroom and you know what I did? That’s right. I got in the car and went to the park to take pictures of birds.

That was four days ago. I don’t know what happened to him as a child. Somewhere he missed Housecleaning 101 when I taught it to my children in the summer of ’89. I will have to credit him with the fact that he was only two years old and his brother had a four year jump on him and his sister almost two years. Still, I repeated that class several times each week but I never realized he was failing. He missed the lecture ‘Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness’, as he was at his best friend’s birthday party where he was duking it out at a re-creation of the Peter Pan (Hook?) food fight. Some very bad lessons learned there but one of his fondest memories. He also missed the lecture on ‘Do Unto Others as You Would Have Others Do Unto You’, with an emphasis on cleaning up after yourself. I am not sure where he was that day. Perhaps at the overnighter where he lost his camera, wallet, whatever. Something is always missing.

Back to the present…

It’s been four days. I know my son is busy working. He works hard. He gets up at 6:30 to be at a job by 7:30 and usually doesn’t get home until close to eight o’clock at night. He is tired, hungry and most days I don’t recognize him as he’s wearing more paint than what he probably used to cover the house he painted that day for a client. However, doesn’t he realize I have more important things to do than pick up over a thousand things that belong to him, just so I can get to the bottom and clean? After all, there are birds waiting for me to photograph.

Not very long ago I would have stood there and sobbed over this matter. Today I just said, “God – I can’t do this today.” You know what God had to say to me?

You can’t count my blessings today?

I can’t count blessings if my mind is on the things of this world, like being frustrated over things. I can’t count blessings if I am bitter and angry, for my mind is on me, myself, and then there’s I. ‘I’ always says, I shouldn’t have to do this. ‘I’ has a pride problem. But, you know what? I is right in one respect. I shouldn’t have to do this because my grown-up son is a big boy and big boys clean up after themselves and so you know what ‘I’ did instsead? That’s right. I grabbed my camera, grabbed a bottle of water, and went out into the backyard to take pictures of birds. You know why? Not because I was running from the mess. I’ve been there – done that. I went outside to take pictures because I was looking for blessings. And I found what I was looking for.