Explore the place where clean and holy meet-and chart a new course toward discovering sanctity.
"I've always sought solace in cleaning.... As my husband and I packed up our apartment and cleaned the profound dust of the Twin Towers from our books and pillows, we used this shared ritual as an opportunity to reflect and heal. As my neighbor once said, 'Cleaning house is my church.'"
-from the Introduction
Be they our kitchens after a meal or our communities after a crisis, we all face the times-and opportunities-when we must clean up. Through a beautiful, diverse and eclectic array of personal narratives, fiction, sacred texts and verse, this inspiring book offers new perspectives on the unique ways we can reach out for the Divine within the simple acts of washing the dishes, doing the laundry, making a home and more. Giving the process of cleaning house depth and resonance, these writings will speak to your heart and allow you to see beyond the task at hand and into a greater undertaking-to realize the sacred in all that we do.
From sweeping the home, to organizing the office, to cleaning up the more daunting "Big Messes" in our communities, this engaging book touches upon every facet of our lives.
Contributors include:
Louisa May Alcott ? Gaston Bachelard ? James Baldwin ? Andrea Barrett ? Mary Catherine Bateson ? Jeannette Batz ? Sue Bender ? Stephen Vincent Benét ? Henri Bosco ? Sarah Ban Breathnach ? Gwendolyn Brooks ? Brother Lawrence ? Dominique Browning ? Yitzhak Buxbaum ? Lydia Maria Child ? Joan Chittister ? Billy Collins ? Amiya Corbin ? John Crawford ? Dorothy Day ? Shoghi Effendi ? Rick Fields ? Sir James George Frazer ? Tess Gallagher ? Mahatma Gandhi ? Allen Ginsberg ? Bernard Glassman ? Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb ? Tenzin Gyatso ? Thich Nhat Hanh ? Nathaniel Hawthorne ? Homer ? Ashley Isaacson ? Martin Luther King, Jr ? Dorianne Laux ? Ursula K. Le Guin ? Eric Leigh ? Jarvis Jay Masters ? Cheryl Mendelson ? Mother Teresa ? Pablo Neruda ? Marsha Norman ? Gunilla Norris ? Kathleen Norris ? Kakuzo Okakura ? Marc Poirier ? Louise Rafkin ? Otagaki Rengetsu ? Rainer Maria Rilke ? Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche ? Marilynne Robinson ? Taigu Ryokan ? Hannah Whitall Smith ? Starhawk ? Henry David Thoreau ? Gary Thorp ? Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ? Booker T. Washington ? Jessamyn West ? Richard Wilbur ? Virginia Woolf ? Anzia Yezierska
At some point in everyone's life comes the time to clean up. It might be your kitchen after dinner; it might be your community after a crisis. One way or another, it must be done, and a considerable amount of time is spent doing it. This spiritual anthology gives the process of cleaning house depth and resonance while exploring the point where a multitude of belief systems intersect?that place where clean and holy meet. Drawing from religious texts, personal narratives, fiction, and verse, this inspiring collection finds a common thread: cleaning as a spiritual path. In writings as diverse as those of Rumi, Allen Ginsberg, Gandhi, Tillie Olsen, Zen Master Dogen, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Starhawk, James Baldwin, Kathleen Norris, the Dalai Lama, and the Bible, dozens of the world's best writers and thinkers illuminate what is holy about cleaning house.
"Thoughtful, surprising ... aims to inspire us to think differently about how we keep our domestic space. The importance of loving family, self and something transcendent ties these writings together. It's hard to resist."
-Washington Post
"A timeless theme ... a cultural landmark exploring our changing attitudes about home."
-Detroit Free Press
"Lovely.... Articulates what many women know but hesitate to admit: housekeeping has a unique spiritual quality, if only we will tap into it. Simply read and enjoy whenever you need to find the sacred in housekeeping once again."
-Marcia Ford, author of Finding Hope: Cultivating God's Gift of a Hopeful Spirit
"Finds meaning in the ever-present reality of housekeeping.... It is at once lovely, inspiring and thoughtful."
-Karyn D. Kedar, author of The Bridge to Forgiveness: Stories and Prayers for Finding God and Restoring Wholeness
"Slowly shakes loose our need to constantly distinguish small from large, mundane from sacred, interior from exterior?. Uncommonly joyful in the way it affirms the simplicity we sense directly in spiritual life, while at the same time including the mysteries and intensities of the immeasurable dwelling place."
-Bonnie Myotai Treace, Hermitage Heart Zen
"An eclectic and ecumenical treasury of writings-ancient and modern, poetry and prose, secular and sacred?. Dissolves the boundaries between drudgery and dharma, celebrating the opportunities for transcendence that can be found in the everyday. Feng Shui for the heart, mind and soul."
-Arthur Goldwag, author of The Beliefnet Guide to Kabbalah
"Rich ... will amuse and edify, prompting readers to reflect on the ways that the most mundane requirements of life are inseparably bound up with the transcendent."
-Books & Culture: A Christian Review
"Bring[s] light into an often mundane subject."
-Catholic News Service
"Delightful.... Will transform the way you look at that load of laundry or broom in the corner. It may even inspire you to find sanctuary in that sink full of dirty dishes."
-Presbyterians Today
"Inspires us to see [household chores] as prayer and a doorway through which Love can enter and dwell in our homes.... Helps us see ways to begin cleaning the interior stains and grime out of our hearts and minds."
-Quaker Life
"Brings beautiful order and a sense of peace to the tasks of keeping house.... A treasure.... If [we are] to pray always, as St. Paul urges, [this book] makes it seem more possible."
-St. Anthony Messenger
