Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life by Margaret Kim Peterson is a very thoughtful, precise and inspiring look at the Christian dimensions of housekeeping.
The author's voice is very calm and practical and I found myself nodding in agreement throughout as she made observations about the way our culture dismisses housekeeping as not valuable and yet at the same time demands perfection in terms of size, design, up to the minute upgrades in appliances and decorating, etc. Our consumerist, keeping up with the Jones, brainwashing via advertisements and media pushes against our busyness and devaluation of the actual things needed to be done over and over again in order to achieve that Hollywood-inspired perfection.
Mrs. Peterson uses the idea of liturgy and prayers of litany, where the same actions, responses and rituals are performed repeatedly in order to add meaning to our lives, not to detract from it. So too could the menial and mundane daily activities that necessarily make up the act of keeping house. If we are embued in a Christian mindset these actions can be a path to living out a Christian life. For example the liturgical year is a very orderly and satisfying way to organize the living out of our faith in time. We repeat the same celebrations and rememberances every year. This gives us comfort and allows us to dig deeper each year when we once again confront that aspect of the Christian year. Housework can also be approached this way. Mrs. Peterson does a wonderful job of going through each aspect of housekeeping from clothing storage to cleaning to cooking and examines our preconceptions in light of the Gospel.
I should probably read this type of book continually. Housekeeping is such a very dreary thing to me. I have never felt any satisfaction from it and I fear my bad attitude is so deeply wedged into my pysche that I may never be free! But books like this really are inspirational and do seem to lighten the burden psychologically for a brief period of time for me. I'm like a leaky sink where the stopper doesn't work. You can pour the water in but it drains almost as fast as it goes in. So I need continual inspiration in order to be full!
Willa had a book study on Keeping House on her blog. I wanted to participate but as usual, I started out gangbusters and soon fizzled. I think I'm going to avoid books studies in the future as I just can't seem to discipline myself to keep up with them. But Willa always has such a profound and clear response to things. I love to read her thoughts and analysis.
In her conclusion, Mrs. Peterson says: "The sacramental quality of home means that a well-kept house is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Faithfully keeping house is a way to remember God's promises of home and actively participate in the fulfillment of those promises." Having that kind of understanding makes washing the dishes for the third time in a day or spending yet another hour trying to hold back the chaos of clutter that perennially builds up around me, much, much easier to bear.
I read this book on my Kindle. I hope to reread it again as I think it is the type of thing that would give even more inspiration the second time around.
Highly recommended, if you need inspiration in this area of your life.
For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books.
No comments:
Post a Comment