SWEEPING CHANGES: Discovering
the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks
by Gary Thorp

Sometimes Rachel, my Alchemical Goddess over at the Garden of One, gets bags of books from people that are cleaning out their libraries. If I’m there when they arrive, I get to pick through and find a couple of treasures to take home. That’s how I came across Gary Thorp’s delightful examination of how to discover the wisdom in window-washing, the lyricism in laundry folding and the bliss in bed-making.

Thorp is a married, home-owning lay monk in California, ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi ("Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"). He's also a terrific writer and a sensitive soul. He doesn't expect us to have perfectly clean houses, but wants us to perfect our minds as we clean. A small volume, Sweeping Changes dispenses its thoughtful teachings by touching on things that all of us can relate to: our kitchens, our bathrooms, our lawns. When, with mindfulness and one-pointed focus we are completely there with what we are doing, what seems like a simple task blossoms with beauty, sincerity and joy. As Thorpe points out, your home is an extension of yourself; therefore, when your home is in turmoil, your life is in turmoil. However, when you attend to your home, you begin to feel less hurried and more in tune with the world around you. There is delight and calm to be found in the midst of washing dishes or changing the water in a vase of flowers; there is pleasure to be experienced in the repetitions of daily life. And with a simple turn of mind, a simple breath of relaxation, the pleasure in deceptively tiny accomplishments fills your world to brimming,

So as the days lengthen, the sun’s angle rises toward its summer zenith, and my feathered folk start their choir practice for the green growing season, get a copy of Sweeping Changes to read between chores. It will stay with you as you move from task to task, and the entire day will go from “having to do housework” to “getting to do housework.” Change one word, and change your worldview.

“ Whistle while you work.” Maybe those Seven Dwarves were on to something…