Allergic to Cleaning?

Neighborhood meadow

Yes, Pesach is in the air. Positive sightings abound. Firstly, spring is in full bloom. Flowers have opened their petals, releasing tiny particles of pollen into the air. 

My husband, who is more sensitive to pollen than humming bees, has starting sneezing full time. The walls resonate with ‘ah choos’ and we have stockpiled our spring supply of Kleenex.

Outside our sneezy home, the birds are busy. Chirping, migrating, nest building and hatching are on their agendas. A family of doves recently made a nest outside my kitchen window. I watched the pair as I sponged my dishes each morning, afternoon and evening. I observed with fascination that the mama bird actually sat still on her eggs for hours.

Day in. Day out.

She preened her feathers, occasionally locked eyes with me and generally seemed to appreciate her place in the universe while sitting in her cozy, albeit twiggy, nest. She was at peace with her job and refused to succumb to distractions. She did the job at hand. She was good.

Day in. Day out.

Meanwhile, I whipped around the house spastically trying to do fifty things at once and accomplishing little. With one hand in soapy water, the other clutching my cell, I dashed to stir the soup, chop up vegetables, then ran out to do a carpool, returning to scrape a pot of burnt soup. Meanwhile, the mama bird sat complacently on her nest looking in at me quizzically, seeming to shake her head at me in that dove-like way.

Her two babies hatched and she preened them while the daddy bird brought home food. I sponged, chopped, burned food and scrubbed pots some more. Within a few weeks, the birds gathered strength and the family flew off into the sunset.

The nest is now abandoned and I am still standing at my sink thinking I should learn how to do one job at a time. Meanwhile, Passover is nearing and I have not done a single thing to ease its arrival. I feel like the character in my novel who decides to run away from cleaning, seeking refuge in a compact RV. There are no RVs in Israel and if I were to go on a road trip like the characters in Let My RV Go!, I would end up in Turkey via Lebanon.

Sign for Pesach cleaning help

So I will learn from my dove role model and will do the job at hand. I will do it slowly and surely, with focus and dedication. I will take out the bucket. I will fill it with soapy water. And I will sit in my sunny garden ‘nest.’ For hours. Day in. Day out.

Spring is in the air and dusting makes my husband sneeze.