New Holland, Pennsylvania

I've been working hard, helping little bird clear clutter (more on that later), and babysitting my granddaughters. Not where I want to be but I'm comfortable getting some things accomplished.

Today I'm working at the home office of a colleague, who is in New Holland, PA. He was amazed that I could stay so cozy and comfortable in the van at night, just using his shower in the mornings. Heck, even the port-a-potty got some use in the middle of the chilly night. I've stayed a few days now and expect to finish a major piece of the project before heading back to little bird's house closer to Royersford this evening.

Little bird got an "intervention" from her son and I earlier this month. EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! She is finally letting go of stuff. I made it clear and her son made it clear that WE are NOT going to clean it up. SHE must CLEAN IT UP and LET IT GO! There is a pathological clutter problem, really a hoarding problem and she's too great a person to allow this to go on any longer. Every word she says about hopes and dreams is about "one day when my house is clean". Yo! Clean it today, one square foot at a time.

I posted a bit about the issue earlier in my blog. I'm a minimalist, neat freak, with delusions of simplicity. For awhile I allowed myself to suffer as her roommate, freely "helping" by cleaning entire rooms only to come home from work to see them trashed. I finally told her how it made me feel. Her son confronted her on her belief that the clutter and mess came only from the time she had hand surgery. I had believed that, until he pointed out to her that this problem has been around since he was small. He cried as he told her that the way they lived hurt him and made his early life difficult. He was pushed to a tiny area of a cluttered room with barely enough room for his bed. He showed her pictures of it before she would accept what she had done to him. I showed her pictures of the kitchen as it would look to me after a hard day at work, then coming home to food leavings and dirty dishes everywhere, when I had cleaned it up before leaving for work! Never again!

I only spend my energy giving her moral support now, because she asked for help. Help can only be moral support. Nobody else can clean up her life and expect that the lesson will take. She simply has to do the inner work to ensure that happens.

So, I'm finishing up here at work, then next week I'm headed back to Missouri for the winter. I want to winterize my tiny trailer and settle in with my new kittens. I'll travel again when the cold season is nearly over, taking a kitten or two with me.