An Invisible Lack of Messes

I got a decent amount of work done today. I sorted several piles of junk I had left lying around the house, I tidied up the top of my dresser, I cleaned out our birds' cages, folded some blankets, and swept downstairs. All told, I accomplished multiple hours of good, solid work.

Yet, much of the work I did today is invisible. If you look at the downstairs floor, for example, you wouldn't think "Ah, this floor has been recently swept." You wouldn't notice that piles of junk are no longer there or that the blankets are neatly folded. Rather, it would be far more noticeable if the work hadn't been done. One would notice dust bunnies, crumpled blankets, and piles of junk. Often, problems are far more noticeable than a lack thereof.

When we work, we sometimes look back on a day and think that we didn't accomplish much. If I looked back at the areas in which I worked, I would still see some clutter that needs to be sorted out, and I would still see some dust bunnies that had evaded my broom. The problems that remain are much easier to spot than the problems that have already been solved.

So let's try to be aware of our circumstances and patient with ourselves. We may be accomplishing far more than we realize, and we may have fewer problems than we think. Of course, everyone's lives will always have problems, and there will always be more work to be done, but it can be refreshing to appreciate how much work we have already done, even if we can't see it, and we should appreciate not having the problems we don't notice we don't have.