My neighbour Anna doesn't have to wash her windows - she doesn't have any. She doesn't have to sweep the floor: the wind does that, as she keeps walls to a minimum. Sometimes she gets lucky, and the rain does her dishes for her, in her open kitchen.
The Japanese concept of 清掃、Seiso, translated as shine, sweep, or sparkle, is one of the most misunderstood of The ‘5 S’ principles in The Toyota Way.
When we force our personal preferences of 'clean' onto the people in our lives, it ends in tears. It's easier to just 'do it all yourself', and keep the relationship.
Are you the slob or the uptight one on the Richter-scale of 'clean', rocking a relationship? Like a flower or mushroom that springs out of the dirt, beautiful, Anna's home, to me, is a wonder to behold.
Its elemental, with its unpainted timber, natural rock floor. Its intricate, with reclaimed vintage treasures being given a useful life, and harmonizing with everything around it. Its blurring the boundaries between man-made and god-made, with vines wending their way into the living room, healthy happy plants growing in the rocky-bottomed shower, fire heating the bath, sun powering it all.
When I visit I have the feeling that everything there was personally chosen, in the spirit of 'You and I were meant for each other',. Advertizing and shopping centeres shaped none of it. The DNA of Anna's style is unsullied, and that makes it as clean as a rainforest.
I absolutely LOVE this! To me, it feels just right! Okay, you *might* get hornets buzzing in, but hey, they just go straight out again, and if you light up a smudge stick (I make my own from herbs in the garden; the latest is yarrow, lavender, and sunwort (Hypericum perforatum; sunwort is my name for it) which smells lovely and sweet and sort of resinous) they leave even faster! A way to *be* in nature and *feel deeply held* at all times. Awkward for cold winters, but that's what winter shutters and resourcefulness are for!
(Rhiannon, in Haute-Pyrenees, France)