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| I can only wish my bookshelf looked like this. |
I really didn't want to read this book.
I'm no feminist, but..."homemaking"? Geez. This is 2016, people.
Nonetheless, I saw it on my best friend's bookshelf. I'd heard of it before, and my friend said it was good, so I borrowed it.
It sat on my dresser, untouched, for a few months. This book is probably full of stuff like how to tidy your house and how to cook food and how to sew your own clothes. (Never mind that I browse that kind of stuff on Pinterest. All. The. Time.)
Finally, one day, I looked at it and thought, "Aw, what the heck. I need to get it over with. Who says I should only read things that appeal to me?"
I am so glad I read it!
The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaffer was much more enlightening, relatable, and relevant than I expected. I don't recall anything about cleaning house, actually - it's all about enriching one's home with creative living, or "hidden art," as Schaffer calls it.
I thought it would be written entirely to women, but Shaffer occasionally addresses men directly as well, since the principles apply to both genders. "It is true that all men are created in the image of God, but Christians are supposed to be conscious of that fact, and being conscious of it should recognize the importance of living artistically, aesthetically, and creatively, as creative creatures of the Creator."
Even more, I was surprised when Shaffer called out young women who were waiting for a husband to come along before they would make the effort to express themselves: "If you *stop* putting off homemaking until your hope of marriage develops into a reality, and *start* to develop an interesting home right now, it seems to me two things will happen: first, you will develop into the person you could be as you surround yourself with things that express your own tastes and ideas; and second, as you relax and become interested in areas of creativity, you will develop into a more interesting person to be with." And I had come to this book thinking it would be a manual for young married women to establish their household. I'm really glad I'm wrong. We need more of this sort of sensibility in the world!
Shaffer's book has 14 chapters on topics ranging from gardening, to food, even to the environment and conservation. It's hard for me to pick my favorite chapters, because I learned something new in all of them, but those three in particular stood out. I especially love what she said in the chapter on food: "Food cannot take care of spiritual, psychological and emotional problems, but the feeling of being loved and cared for, the actual comfort of the beauty and flavour of food, the increase of blood sugar and physical well-being, help one to go on during the next hours better equipped to meet the problems."
What I realized is that my notion of homemaking involved chores - sweeping, dusting, dishes. But these are merely housekeeping - maintaining a state of order. Making a home is an entirely different matter. A hospital is in an excellent state of order and cleanliness (hopefully), but I don't think I'd ever feel at home in one.
Making a home is allowing your living space to express who you are. I've grown up with a lot of clutter, which I guess is why I didn't always feel like I was at home - there were too many things I clung to that did not express who I was, and I often felt like I needed to go somewhere else to express myself. The Hidden Art of Homemaking helped me understand what I needed to do: get rid of things I don't use or want, and learn to express my creativity in the comforts of my own home.
The old Pauline: "I'm going to hang on to this tub of yarn in case I ever learn how to knit. I'm going to hang on to these markers because they could come in handy. I'm going to hang on to these old clothes I don't really like because...because, um...I don't care if they get dirty doing farm work."
The new Pauline: "I have had this yarn since I was a child and I have never learned how to knit - I'd rather be designing dresses and learning to sew! I don't ever color with these markers - pencil is the medium I'm familiar with, and watercolors are the medium I'm interested in. Why should I do farm work in ugly clothes? I can at least choose sturdy clothes that I like to wear."
(The exception to the ugly work clothes rule is if I work on my car. Then it's jeans and an old shirt!)
"It seems to me that whether it is recognized or not, there is a terrific frustration which increases in intensity and harmfulness as time goes on, when people are always daydreaming of the kind of place in which they would like to live, yet never making the place where they do live into anything artistically satisfying to them. Always to dream of a cottage by a brook while never doing anything to the stuffy house in the city is to waste creativity in this very basic area, and to hinder future creativity by not allowing it to grow and develop through use."
I would recommend this book to anyone who feels stifled in our fast-paced, prepackaged, screen-infused world.
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