This Mother’s Day I got lost and it was so very wonderful. No one even came looking for me and I was so assured. I even lost track of time and started to sweat and didn’t have lunch and I felt so revived. I wasn’t really alone, though. I spent the afternoon with Ingrid and Ella and Norah. And U2 and Coldplay. Oh, and I can’t forget Fergie and J. Lo. And if there was a search party that set out to find me, they would have found me in the very room of my very own home in which so much of life happens.
If they came alookin’, they would have found me on the golden, grainy, notched wooden surface that frequently transforms into a stage, a race track, a crumb-catcher, the deck of a pirate’s ship, an ice rink, and a….dance floor. No fancy lights. No suave, smooth-talking D.J. No high heels. No applause. Yes, a slight breeze from the kitchen window. Yes, a mop (a.k.a, microphone). Yes, Pandora Radio playing on the iPod. Yes, white ankle socks. And, yes, all of the aforementioned “guests” lending their voices and their beats.
This Mother’s Day, while my husband and children took a very timely trip to visit grandparents, I got lost in the waking, daylight hours of cleaning my kitchen and it was Glorious. Now read the word glorious again, aloud, Oprah Winfrey-style…you know, as in the way she bellows like an opera singer when she makes an exciting announcement…“Glllorrr-rri-oussss!”
I was free. Free for a while from the other “music” of my life: the predictable whines of “I’m still hungry;” the clankity-clanks of the 8 month-old’s “Jumperoo;” and the unending, unnerving nasal sounds of a 5-year-old in the trenches of allergy season, to name a few.
There, in the kitchen, on Mother’s Day, I reaped the benefits of the pure freedom and flow that comes with movements that are second nature. With my hands moving through the manual, repetitive, and almost hypnotic patterns of scrubbing, spraying, washing, and wiping, I cut through the grease and grime of life as I know it, all while really cleaning and clearing the corners of my mind.
In between dancing and singing and scouring, I even stood still at the kitchen sink, with the water running over the omelet pan (perhaps a little too long), while staring out the window. I was in love. In love with this window, this house, these imperfect counters, that intensely pink flowering dogwood tree, this dance floor, uh, I mean this kitchen floor.
And then…the search party, my real “loves”, came crashing in, literally. Thud, boom, bang…a bag of toys spilling out onto my floor, followed by little feet tripped up over one another, then a sneeze and a word all mixed up into a jumble of an expression that sounded like, “…..Mah-choo…hngry.” As I scooped up all that I could in my tired arms, I could hear through the kitchen window the engine of a ride-on lawn mower starting up.
I quickly turned down the music on the iPod and peeked out the window to find my husband wearing his red baseball hat, white t-shirt, khaki shorts, and sporty sandals, perched in the seat of his hunter green Craftsman. With his hands on the wheel and his eyes fixed on the sea of green surrounding him, he was off. I recognized that familiar look on his face as he began creating long, symmetrical tracks in the lawn in a very rhythmical, methodical manner. Yup, sure enough, he was lost. And because I, myself, had just been “there,” I decided to hold off awhile on “sending out the search party.” After all, don’t we all deserve to get a little “lost” now and again?
(As a small gift to our readers, Berlin Patch is offering a “Spring Cleaning Giveaway.” Mom, “In the (MOM)ent,” Sharon Pinchera, loves listening to an assortment of music, including Ingrid Michaelson, Norah Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, and U2 while writing her Patch articles and while getting “lost” in her cleaning. If you would like a chance to win a few “Mrs. Meyer’s” cleaning products, just enter a comment at the end of this article. In just 1-2 sentences, share your favorite way of “getting lost.” The winner of the package will be chosen at random and contacted. The contest ends on May 24.)
