Maintenance. What’s your relationship to this word? What connotations does it bring up for you? Negative, neutral, positive, indifferent?
This word came to me while I was gardening. My husband and I were in the depths of our garden pulling out these big hairy weeds. Weeds that were suffocating our other plants. Weeds that were growing tall and spreading their unwanted dusty seeds everywhere. Weeds that were sneakily trying to camouflage under the rosemary and lavender bushes. This word maintenance popped into my mind and I realized, if we didn’t neglect this garden and did more daily and weekly maintenance, we probably wouldn’t have this big of a weed takeover! And if we didn’t have this big of a weed explosion, we wouldn’t have to spend this much time and energy “digging” ourselves out, feeling hopeless and overwhelmed.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking...I can’t relate to this analogy at all because I don’t have a garden and have never dealt with weeds. I get it. That was me too prior to living in Seattle. However, if gardening doesn’t work as an analogy, think of where in your life you might let things get out of control so that the energy it takes to regain balance and order is much greater than if you had created daily/weekly maintenance around it. For instance, is it your refrigerator? Closet? Your health? Your finances? A certain relationship?
As I reflected on this word, maintenance, I noticed some resistance and irritation arose. The word feels a bit negative. It makes me feel like I have to do something, which in turn creates some resistance and internal pushback. So I decided to reframe this word in my mind and use the language of “refresh,” instead. I asked myself, what would daily acts of refreshing the garden look like? To me, this feels more supportive and allows me to think of connecting to house work as a life giving act instead of a life-sucking chore.
For you, where in your life could you use more attention and attunement? Where does micro maintenance –or refreshing– provide a supportive approach for you to create balance and ease? If you need to reframe the word maintenance, what word would you use? Share with me here!