SWEEP THE SOOT FROM YOUR LIFE TO CLEAR THE AIR

              

MY only image of the chimney sweep is from the film Mary Poppins, where all the chimney sweeps break out in song as they Step in Time. I imagine small and skinny humans squeezing through age-old chutes and then presto, their blackened faces appear out of the chimneys like a jack-in-the-box.

So, when our chimneys got stuck, I was secretly excited about meeting the chimney sweep. I know we are living in the new millennium but I am a lover of all things vintage and I was secretly hoping to see a faint likeness of the chimney sweep of my imagination.

The tradition of a chimney sweep bringing luck is an age-old one, especially to the bride and groom on their wedding day. Legend has it that 200 years ago, a chimney sweep bravely stepped out and stopped King George II's horse and coach as it bolted. He was so grateful to the sweep for saving his life that he decreed that all sweeps were lucky!

 When the door bell rang, a man called Paul announced his mission for the day. First, he was tall and burly and not skinny and small. So, I crossed that characteristic off of my list expectations on how a chimney sweep should look like Next, he was fair and not covered in soot either. My disappointment continued to rise and when he carried in the hoover (that is what they call the vacuum cleaner over here) I was transported back to the 21st century again. Almost immediately Paul got to work. I had a lovely time watching Paul clean the chimneys and my zero knowledge of stoves and fireplaces made him a happy teacher. He assembled the segments of a very long brush and pushed it through the chimney and I had to watch from the outside of the house if anything came out of the chimney. Truth be told when I went outside to look at the roof, I was not even sure which chimney the brush would pop out from! I laughed at my ignorance and that most people will not give much thought to something until it is broken. So, imagine my joy when I saw the brush (and not a human head) popping out of the chimney.

To make work fun, we chatted on food, country and family -- my three favourite topics. He was curious as to where I was from and we talked about the weather -- how hot and humid Malaysia is and how cold and damp Ireland is.

He commented that I looked good and I quipped that it must be the Malaysian humidity that keeps our skin supple and takes 10 years off our faces. When I saw the amount of soot and dirt that Paul dislodged from the chimneys I could not help but compare it with the amount of soot and dirt that we carry with us throughout our lives.

I remember when I met my friend Susan Bryson for the first time, I thought she looked really beautiful and youthful. Apart from good genes, she said the countenance reflects the attitude one has towards life. And it is not uncommon to see what we carry in our hearts and souls emanating from our faces -- just like soot and dirt clogging up a chimney.

In fact, there is a proverb that goes, "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit". How good it is to clear the blocked ducts in our lives: the bad memories and the hurt. Max Lucado, a best-selling writer once said, "Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realising that you were the prisoner".

 In no time, Paul finished the chimney sweeping. Before he left, we tried to start a fire to check whether the airway was clear. Almost like magic, I could feel the heat roaring through and the chimneys puffing like dragons. I have heard of the quintessential milkman brightening up a housewife's dull day, but when the chimney sweep comes a-calling, he clears the air that I breathe!

Read more: Sweep the soot from your life to clear the air - Columnist - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/sweep-the-soot-from-your-life-to-clear-the-air-1.159713#ixzz29x9Ux0J2

A Need for Women to Recharge

After a good year of giving out dazzling beams in the dark, my garden lights have decided to shut down. So I frantically looked for answers as to how to rejuvenate them and when men gave conflicting suggestions, I turned to my trusty source of speedy information – the internet.

That was the beginning of my lessons on solar energy and the myriad of batteries on supermarket shelves: Nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd), NiMH, energisers and others. I removed the lid of each light to reveal a simple circuit pattern. I checked with the diagram on the webpage. A perfect match indeed. I was certainly making inroads into a world that was hitherto unknown to me. I thought it was a splendid invention indeed, how solar energy could be harnessed to power simple domestic objects. Most importantly, what struck me was the need for re-charging. Same as humans. Women, especially need to be re-charged because they are givers most of the time. Whether we are wives, carers, mothers, daughters - at home or at the workplace- we are on duty 24/7, public holidays included. Without realising it, we become so committed and responsible and this in itself becomes an imprisonment with no early parole for good behaviour. Truth be told, there is a need to escape from the madness called routine. Those who work outside the home have weekends off but this can be a misnomer as weekends are usually used to clean the house and to catch up with other domestic chores left undone during the week. Those who are homemakers may face a tougher job in trying to define the concept. They may even have to convince the uninitiated, particularly the husband and the children, that homemaking is actually a round-the-clock sentry job and being a stay at home mother is not exactly akin to playing mah-jong and watching soap operas all the time. We all need to be re-charged.

Have you ever seen how droopy plants spring to life almost immediately when we water them? Or how a hungry baby grabs a milk bottle? When we are re-charged, then only do we have so much more to give to others - something different, something new, something exciting. Even if we run on petrol or diesel we will stall along the way unless we manoeuvre ourselves to a nearby kiosk and get re-filled. We just cannot perform at optimum levels all the time. Recharging can be anything that ranges from shopping, going on a holiday or just being out of the home. It is said that shopping is excellent retail therapy as when we are up, we shop and when we are down, we shop even more. Tammy Faye Bakker once said that shopping is a great deal cheaper than having to go see a psychiatrist regularly.

Recharging can be going to the movies. Even with satellite television and Dvds, to me nothing beats watching movies on the big screen and chomping delicious morsels complete with piping hot latte as I watch actors and actresses fly towards me in 3-D version. Recharging can be sipping coffee in the company of friends, whether in a café or at home where the air is pregnant with the smell of piping hot scones in the oven. It is the sharing of both the serious and the trivial that we enter into different worlds and get a glimpse of another person’s life and feel privileged to be privy to it. So now I am enjoying the ultimate recharging process. I am on vacation back in my home country among the familiar. The epitome of a decadent lifestyle of feasting and relaxing and catching up with friends and loved ones. I remind myself constantly that if I soak up enough sun, then my winter nights ahead will be very warm indeed.