Washing My Life Away

How many of us double check that we really have locked the door or switched off the iron? For some people, such mundane everyday worries can become life-ruining obsessions. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects one in fifty people and one of them was Ruth Deane. In this frank and personal account she shares her own experience as an OCD sufferer, from the first innocuous signs of onset to the devastating effect of the condition on her relationships with her family and friends, her self-esteem and her marriage. Ruth Deane takes the reader on a moving, honest and at times light-hearted journey, from washing her hands until they cracked and bled, to hospital admission and eventual management and recovery from OCD. This book offers hope and support to sufferers and an insight into the disorder for family, friends, professionals and all those who want or need to understand OCD and the recovery process.

*The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productions* A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming. Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.

My unstructured upbringing, and cares to the wind attitude, led to my frequent incarceration, from childhood to adulthood, it’s a disturbing story, which is primarily aimed at the adult reading audience, who enjoy reading about reality situations and crime. I have always been a reader, and to a large extent, that helped me become a self taught person. Born on the banks of the Colorado River in Arizona, and raised up in the Marcos De Niza barrio projects in South Phoenix, I experienced the injustices of the cotton fields, Maricopa County Juvenile Detention Home, and Arizona State Industrial School at Fort Grant, Arizona. I wandered the desperate streets of Los Angeles, and the forlorn railroad tracks, alone, like a lost person without a purpose in life. I was locked up in the jails of Phoenix, and Los Angeles, before winding up in the California State penitentiary system. Upon my release, I struggled to stay out of the pen, and took the jobs that society at large would never want to take. Through numerous personal tragedies, incarcerations, and unfortunate circumstances, I lost control of my life. No one was ever able to change my destructive behavior. The changes when they occurred came from within me, when I could no longer cope, with the situations I had cast my self into. Looking back, I can now see what I couldn’t see, during those hopeless time periods. I was very fortunate, to finally be able to leave that life behind me, through relationships that believed in me, and successfully worked, and built myself a civil service work career, from which I retired. I now spend my days enjoying life’s simple pleasures, after all my previous tragic missteps. My objective in life now, is to become an accomplished writer.

Not Easily Washed Away is the true story of a young girl who was born to a Muslim family in Pakistan. She suffered through sexual, mental and physical abuse for fifteen years, which was perpetrated by her father Abdulla. Laila decides to take advantage of her father's incestuous addiction by having him acquire a visa for her to the United States, where she feels as if she can rid herself of a putrid past. The book is written from a psychological perspective in first person, as Laila shares her painful past with the reader, sparing no details of her ordeal as a child, teenager and young adult. After she realizes her father's diabolical plan is to keep her in Pakistan for himself, Laila decides to take fate into her own hands. Her new attitude helps her to turn the tables on her father, now living in America, and manipulate him into marrying an American woman to get Laila's visa to the United States. The United States is not the instantaneous answer to Laila's plight. She arrived in Seattle, Washington, in 2004 to start a new life away from her father, but ends up being unable to stop the incestuous relationship with him and later on, with her stepmother. Things get even worse for Laila, as she is now twenty years old, depressed, and worried that her family's fate back in Pakistan might be jeopardized if she leaves home. In the Spring of 2007 Laila's life changes when her younger sister arrived from Pakistan and when she meets an interesting, Christian, Jamaican man at school. The young man confronts Laila about the abuse, and when she realizes she has feelings for him, she tells him everything. The young man tries to convince Laila that she can become mentally stronger and free herself of her abusive father and stepmother by running away with him.

The wildly popular YouTube star behind CLEAN MY SPACE presents the breakthrough solution to cleaning better with less effort Melissa Maker is beloved by fans all over the world for her completely re-engineered approach to cleaning. As the dynamic new authority on home and living, Melissa knows that to invest any of our precious time in cleaning, we need to see big, long-lasting results. So, she developed her method to help us get the most out of our effort and keep our homes fresh and welcoming every day. In her long-awaited debut book, she shares her revolutionary 3-step solution: • Identify the most important areas (MIAs) in your home that need attention • Select the proper products, tools, and techniques (PTT) for the job • Implement these new cleaning routines so that they stick Clean My Space takes the chore out of cleaning with Melissa’s incredible tips and cleaning hacks (the power of pretreating!), her lightning fast 5–10 minute “express clean” routines for every room when time is tightest, and her techniques for cleaning even the most daunting places and spaces. And a big bonus: Melissa gives guidance on the best non-toxic, eco-conscious cleaning products and offers natural cleaning solution recipes you can make at home using essential oils to soothe and refresh. With Melissa’s simple, groundbreaking method you can truly live in a cleaner, more cheerful, and calming home all the time.

Find order and beauty in the kitchen with this delightfully elegant primer on washing the dishes that elevates and illuminates a seemingly routine chore. Washing the dishes is an ordinary, everyday task--but with examination and care, it can become much more. In this reverent guide to the household chore, Peter Miller shows us how washing dishes can become a joy, a delight, a meditative exercise, and an act of grace and rhythm. We pay so much attention to recipes but little attention to maintenance and cleanup. Washing the dishes is as much a part of making a meal as prepping the vegetables, making the sauces, or seasoning the meats. At times it is quite routine, sometimes raucous, other times complex. It is never convenient. Despite its din and clatter, and despite its reputation, washing the dishes is the coda to the meal. It is a bustling musical of water and soap, of flow and surface, and done well, the fragile shall sit as proudly as the cast-iron. There are some who do the dishes for the clarity and privacy of it, and there are some who relish the quiet isolation of putting things in order where they belong. There are some who feel the time and movement is a kind of digestive. In the evening in particular, there is a silence when it is all done. How to Wash the Dishes brings elegance, art, and a bit of mindfulness to the sink. It is the perfect gift for those who love to clean and equally as apt for those we wish would clean a bit more.

What follows are some poems written along my journey. Some were written as I rode my destiny train, others as I fell from it, and many as I walked along the track waiting for it to come around again. Some are dark, some are deep, and others loving. Some speak of loss, and some are full of hurt. Some are full of joy, and others are fun and slightly quirky. They all offer hopewell, at least they did to me when I wrote them. Enjoy.