Order out of chaos

I spent a couple of hours with an elderly relative today and took it upon myself to de-clutter her dressing table while we chatted about all sorts of things and made loud comments about the programme that was showing on her TV. We ended up with a full carrier bag of junk, mainly wonky plastic bangles, several dead padlocks, twisted old ropes and strings, old keys, parts of things that could not be identified, as well as an empty manicure set, not to talk of a defunct battery operated nail grooming set from my many, many years back who's main parts were missing and the emery pad was disintegrating into powder! Just before this, I just about restrained her from jumping into the bath at 4pm to wash her hair because she said the centre was itching and she felt hot. So she agreed to spray the scalp with one of her myriad hair things and scratched it vigorously with one of about 12 gnarled plastic combs. She took my suggestion to postpone hair washing till she could go to the hairdressers the following day. However, I rescued a tuft of artificial hair from one tall beautiful green ceramic bowl with an elegant pointed cover. Under it was a relic of a suitcase strap. You will be surprised at the kind of stuff that we keep. After a while, they just become part of the scene in our lives and drop completely out of the radar of our attention.

On the table, there were also 3 bottles of that methylated dusting powder -you know the white canister made out of tin with brown skewed writing that has been produced since Mungo Park's time! She explained that there were three because one of her grandchildren might need one since she has skin issues too. With her provision of this emergency skin remedy service, who needs a dermatologist and prescription skin treatment?!

However, I was unable to remedy whatever she had done to her telly's colour balance that tinged all the images with a lurid orange, but I deleted her messages from DSTV as far back as nine months ago.

We had a good time and she did not let me leave before pressing into my hands a three pack set of body butter, vanilla, almond ,and I forget what. It is so lovely how we do that in our culture; give random unsolicited gifts -just because

When I first got married, I played an unspoken game with my hubby . Every time hubby straitened up an object to lie parallel to the centre table's edges, I would deliberately move it and make it slightly skewed. He would constantly keep straightening it up, and I would chuckle inwardly. Well, what can I now say about myself, now that I have become unable to leave someone else's cluttered dressing table alone? Why have I now re arranged her stuff in neat rows? She was very pleased, don't get me wrong, and grateful for the new look I gave it. However, to be honest, I realised that my motivation went far beyond wanting to help her out. I am sure now that I may have become 'OCD' about certain things.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in it's mild form appears to be on the increase. Is this a way in which we as humans are reacting en masse to the uncertainty and disorder in our world?

Was I in some way trying to arrange those things out of a compulsive  desire to bring order out of chaos, and why is it that I could not leave the mess alone as it was? But then again, is that not what God did at creation-bring order out of chaos? No! I am not looking for lame excuses-honest!