Spring cleaning.  Simplify, organize, and de-clutter. Create a refuge. Make a memory.  What does your home say about you? Web sites, magazines, books and television shows devote themselves ad nauseam to the topic of housekeeping.  It appears we never tire of the subject. The tasks are cyclical, never ending.

Marilynne Robinson explores housekeeping as an indicator of health and social connectedness.

Saint Teresa of Avila became prioress of the monastery of the Incarnation in Avila in October 1571. It was the monastery of her profession, where she spent nearly thirty years of her life. After she began her reform houses in 1562, she never expected to come back. Even if no man is a prophet in his birthplace, Teresa’s superiors were confident she would clean up the mess.

Madre Teresa was fifty-two years old when she met twenty-five year old Fray Juan de Yepes, a Carmelite novice at Salamanca. She needed reliable confessors for her nuns in the reformed monasteries.

Given the facts, likely Juan was caught off-guard by Teresa’s style. Sunny, personable and determined, Teresa seemed to be his opposite. Inexperienced, artistic and deeply ascetic, Juan yearned to unite his simple joy in creation with the poverty of Christ. Teresa recognized his sanctity, noting in her journal that she could learn more from him than he could learn from her.