February 22, 2007

This is how things are going

There’s been a whole lot of distracting life drama recently, so I’ve had to develop a domestic triage system. Laundry immediately went into the “can’t deal with this right now” category. This ever-widening category also includes things like grocery shopping, replacing burnt-out light bulbs that I can’t reach, and (unfortunately) knitting.

Due to a work pants-related crisis, I did finally have to tackle the laundry last night.

You know that Buddhist adage “when you chop wood, chop wood. When you haul water, haul water”? Or something equally simple and profound about being in the present moment while performing even the most mundane of tasks?

Well, my mind was not on laundry or on my surroundings or on the present moment while I was hauling the laundry up from the basement last night. And when I pushed open my apartment door I really wasn’t all that surprised to see that my kitchen lights were off (see triaged items, above).

What did surprise me was that my kitchen cabinets seemed to have turned from white to brown. And my kitchen tile looked weird.

It took me a full fifteen seconds of standing in the doorway to realize HOLY CRAP, THIS IS NOT MY APARTMENT.

Obviously, those Buddhists were on to something.

1 comment:

Kristy said...

I did that once. After a hasty retreat up the stairs (to MY apartment) I heard the father explaining to his daughter that some people just try to walk into places that aren't theirs.

I hope it gets better soon.