Domestic Arts

Fresh-baked bread is one of life's greatest pleasures.

This section is devoted to the domestic arts: cooking, cleaning, home economics, etc. We all have a safespace: it's called "Home". Maintaining a comfortable and healthy home, decorating it to reflect your own personal taste and style, cooking delicious and nutritious meals for yourself and for your loved ones - the results are worth the time and effort required.

I work in software engineering, and I enjoy what I do. But I also find a great deal of quiet pleasure and direct sense of accomplishment in performing tasks in the real world: reorganizing my clothes closet, stocking the pantry, dusting my collection of Venetian glass, working in the yard. Is there anything more pleasant and rewarding than sitting down to relax after a day of cleaning your house? Don and I share the daily chores: dishes, laundry, trash, bills - it never ends. But these quiet, mundane, domestic tasks make it possible to truly live well. People who view housework with contempt ("Oh, I don't cook!"), are missing out on some of life's greatest pleasures and meditations.

When life becomes overwhelming, and anxiety or existential angst sets in, there is no better antidote than housework. The improvement in your environment will improve your mood, and exerting yourself in the face of it all can have a bracing effect as you face whatever life is throwing at you.