"Altar-ing" my space...

After spending some time writing and relaxing in a local coffee shop today, part of my “mom” time before cleaning like the Tasmanian devil (well, the opposite of the TD), I picked up a book on decorating. The title said something like, “Altar Your Space”. Yes, as in make it an “Altar” (though I’m really needing to alt-ER my space). Anyway, the whole book was filled with these lovely spiritual thoughts about making your space sacred and feng shui, blah, blah, blah. It was beautiful, of course.

Often when I read these things, I feel frustrated because I can never quite keep my space as “altar” like or “Zen” as I would like. But today it occurred to me that there are no toys in any of these pictures. If there are, they are neatly tucked away somewhere in a single solitary room, presumably along with kids dressed in beautiful, clean, pressed organic clothing that matches their surroundings. I’ve yet to see a small townhouse organized in such a way so the little girls who live there can carry their box of treasures around and dump them on the floor (tiny dolls, tiny shoes, tiny everything) so they can play with or be near mom no matter what she’s doing (usually pumping or cleaning).

I guess my house would be totally different if I outlawed toys in the downstairs “altar-like” spaces. But I WANT to see my little girl play while I’m working on other things. I WANT to be able to stop what I’m doing and join her. As long as she’s little and playing here, I’ll do my best to keep things organized in their place (and I CAN do better at that) but for now, she’s free to roam around, dumping her little treasures at my feet so we can share them together. I think for now, that IS my altar. I feel so much better.