three word wednesday: cleaning [my] house

For the first time ever I'm participating in the Three Word Wednesday linkup at Kristin Hill Taylor's site. Kristin explains:

#ThreeWordWednesday is simple, really. I know we're all busy with life and kids and jobs and parents and friends and church and whatever else it is that occupies our time.

#ThreeWordWednesday is a chance to pause and hear God. Sum up what you're hearing in three words. Those three words are enough. But stories are good too.

Some people write to Kristin's three word phrase; others choose their own. I like writing to a prompt, so that's what I'll do. I've enjoyed Kate M's five minute friday free writes and I've almost been surprised that most of what I've written has come out well the first time, and would require only a little editing to become a more-or-less finished piece. For non-FMF linkups I don't time myself, I do edit some, but I also won't write something as long or involved as an end of semester term paper (or ordination paper, either).

Prompt for Wednesday, 13 April: cleaning my house


I very rarely do dictionary definitions of a word or concept, but this time I'll start with connotations of house as a biological or genetic or product brand heritage—House of Windsor, House of Armani, as a physical building where people live and therefore go home to. People often mention someone recently bought or rented a home, but a house or apartment doesn't become a home until someone stamps their identity on it to literally turn it into a home.

I love houses! I'm a working graphic artist/designer and frequently admit I Have This Thing About Houses, whether the house is a physical structure out on the town, a drawing, photograph, illustration, or painting. But Cleaning My House? How does that go down?! I'll broadly go with house as part of our biological cultural geographical heritage, and with house as current or ideal living place. In this era of multiple online identities, household decluttering has become a hot topic online and it can be a metaphor for our need to streamline our digital presence, but then again, I've also noticed more than few articles about cleaning up your social media image. Before relocating to Current City late last June, I donated a literal ton of stuff. I'd kept most of the furniture I ended up donating only so I wouldn't need to go out and find more of the same, but I also LOVE painted wood furniture and I'd carefully chosen each color to paint or color block each piece. I'd lovingly refinished the non-painted pieces that started out with better wood. Forever I've regularly donated big trash bags full of clothes; I've kept my physical book collection lean and trim. Not long ago I didn't quite clean up my social media presence, but I decided to semi-coordinate other blog topics onto this blog.

Cleaning my house.

My public presentation of my biological, cultural, geographical, and educational credentials concerns me immensely. I've moved way beyond "it's not who you know or what you know – it's who knows you," because I've been unable to connect with people in my fields of interest to a sufficient degree for anyone to remember I'm waiting and ready for someone to contact me for the next opportunity, or at very least for people to respond with excitement when I contact them and make an offer. For those who insist they don't care what other people think, don't care if they win every popularity contest, I remind them door(s) only can be opened from the other side, and I need to present myself, my gifts, my experiences – my total package – in a manner others will not perceive as a threat to the value and worth of their own image, their own "house." I need to stamp my current, updated identity all over my social media pages, my design and music websites. This blog, too! Then I can go home to them, reside in them. As William Faulkner reminds us, what's happening here and now always contains elements from pasts that keep overtaking us, but I know how well different colors, styes, textures, and motifs can combine with others.

Cleaning my house also relates to questions to ask and answer after serious loss:

•What's lost?

•What's left?

•What's possible?

Primarily because I lost individuals and communities that knew me well enough to help me grieve through those questions, I haven't been doing well finding my own responses. Those were the people who knew me, that I believed always would be part of the foundation of my house, my brand. I haven't reached a conclusion with this Three Word Wednesday, but I have explained that just as much as I need to declutter the house that's my brand, I need to rebuild and re-engage with the world of other houses, others' houses.