The Clearer The Dining Table The Clearer Your Mind

That clean space.

When you live in a house like ours with no really big hallways or cloakrooms or even side tables, you get very used to getting everything into the house or placing it on the stairs which are directly next to the front door or on the dining table. I am good at sorting and stuff doesn’t stay there for too long but I know that if I leave stuff about before dinner time and even overnight my perception of clarity immediately fogs up.

I know that a lot of the time I can’t settle to write or work if the downstairs of the house is messy. I find it such a distraction. Sometimes it is a good distraction and keeps me away from work I may be avoiding and sometimes it is a bad distraction and it inhibits my potential.

This morning was a really good example. Last night I left cups and stuff on the table after our week away. It’s the kind of stuff like odd pens, some paper work, random bits and pieces that can sit on the end of our long dining table because we only need to use half of it. But because of my 'we only need half of it’ theory I become lazy in removing the other half. The thing is I left it and went to bed, then this morning I couldn't functioning until I had cleared it. In fact, Rob and the kids ate breakfast before 8 but I couldn’t sit down to relax until I had cleared it, wiped it and put a table cloth on. Not because I have some obsessive notions about cleanliness, simply because I almost couldn’t eat because this stuff was there and needed something doing with it. 

I truly believe that if your dining table is busy with stuff it means that you are equally too busy. It seems to represent life in a way.” I don’t want to clear it because I feel I have cleared every other surface in this house multiple times and this is just one too many.” (Actual words from my brain). But it’s true, sometimes this one thing is just too much and in our case it becomes easier to pile as we still have plenty of room to sit down. 

The clearer the table, the clearer the mind though. In truth, I know and you know that clarity can come from the simplest bit of clearing. And it’s not just the dining table; it's the pots, or the washing or even just making the bed but we all have our little tick button that if a certain thing is done we can conquer the world. 

I have felt awesome this morning. I look at that table and see clarity and that's because it is clear. I won't turn around and look at the pots by the sink but my clear table gives me a clear mind.