by Tenihapi Hezahadjed

People clean people. A mother washes her child - year by year, teaching them to bathe, wash, wipe, and dry themselves. She naturally senses our cry and soothes us back to stillness, teaching us we mustn't hold on to emotions. The child learns the step-by-step process of cleaning one's body and heart, which becomes the basic foundation for being healthy, stable adults. As adults, we teach what we’ve learned to the next generation of children in order to build the culture essential for flourishing communities. We can easily see that motherly love is the first taste of culture we all receive and pass on. For humans, the value of cleanliness is reinforced in culture through the home, and is vital to our stability in life. Without cleanliness, we become weak to our environment and fall prey to illness, accidents, misfortune, and negativity. When we don’t wash ourselves properly, we accumulate toxins, develop an odor, and repel good opportunities. This goes for the heart as well. A heart harboring emotions is likely to be blind to fruitful opportunities for growth and skewed to pessimism and depression. Our dedication to the cleanliness of our heart, body, and home allows us to move through life more objectively, untethered to waste and emotions of the past, ready for the moments that present themselves for our growth and evolution.