Clean Streak

I got a second job about a month ago doing laundry, dishes, ironing, etc for a lady/her family.  She works and cant keep up with it all and still have time to spend doing things she needs to get done.  So, she pays me to do it for her.  And I dont mind.

The ironic thing is that I didnt used to be the clean and organized one.  My mother and sister tried for years to drill into me a sense of "clean up after yourself" and "pick up your room" and "get in the corners", etc.
They threatened me with pictures of hoarders and told me my future home would look like that and smell like cat urine if I didnt learn then what they were teaching me.
And I *was* a very messy child.  I didnt care about matching clothes, brushing my hair, or making my bed .  And in same cases (*looks over shoulder at the bed all messy and unmade.... **cough) I still put things off longer than they might should be done.

But I am not really a messy person.  And cleaning makes me happy.  I never thought I would hear myself say it.  I spent most of this morning cleaning out cabinets, arranging items, stocking the arranged and empty cabinets with all manner of useful things, and cleaning out months worth of congealed brown sticky goo from long-ignored cabinets at work. (yes, loooong ignored.  It took me almost and hour and a ton of boiling water to clean that one out)
I then wiped down the front of all the stainless steel shelves and sprayed them with cleanser and went all the way around Food Service doing the same thing.  And I was in a great mood, happy, and busy keeping myself busy singing little tunes to myself.

And that is when I realized that I was happy doing it.

Someone once asked me what a perfect future would entail, and all I could think to want was to *be happy*.  As strange as that sounds, and as simple as it might be to accomplish, I dont really remember ever being just happy.  At peace with myself, delighting in my surroundings, enjoying the work set before me, and in harmony with the people I come in contact with.
Happy.

I was CLEANING (something I have always loathed and put off) and HAPPY.  And I did it well.  And I made so much space after I threw out unnecessary junk items that had been laying around since..... who knows when.

Mrs. G told me the other day as we were cleaning out her fridge (my idea.... *gasp) that it was because I was not depressed any more.
And that got me thinking.  I do still feel the way I used to, but it is getting to be at shorter intervals, and I can get over it quicker using my wits and all the ways I have learned to combat it.  I do feel more in control of myself and I  like who I am as a person.
And I am a very nice person who cleans, and sings, and smiles at mean people at work, and laughs off mean comments, and who is a good worker, and who is always doing more. 
Its funny.  For so long I tried to be ^ that kind of a person and never could attain it.  It seemed like only a perfect person could keep up such a nice act.

But its not an act.  Its easy.  It comes naturally. 

Like sorting, arranging, and cleaning....