The Cost Of Delay

Yesterday, I finally got around to cleaning my room.  I had been away on holiday for a couple of weeks in California so my room in San Francisco had been 'Untended" for that duration.  It pretty much took all morning.  There were sheets and towels to be washed and fresh linens and bed making.  Then there was my clothes laundry to be done.  Then there was the gathering of cleaning products from our basement six stories below my room, including the vacuum cleaner. Empty the full waste baskets which went to trash bins two floors below where I live.  I found a lot of dirt and dust in the bathroom and bedroom.  I thought the whole process would be easier but it was not.  Why?  Because I had put off the project.  I was away.  I think of the spiritual journey being like cleaning my room/bathroom.  Put off the daily spiritual practice and what happens?  It becomes a lot of work to get back to it.  Only the mess of one's life will get many of us to start cleaning up the interior sludge.  Now that my room is clean, I work on keeping it clean each day, so that when I go back to changing bedding and laundry and trash, it will not be such a monstrous chore.  I try to do the same with prayer and spiritual practice in my daily life.  Make it daily, and the interior housekeeping will not be such a chore.  Delay has a cost.