There is a saying that goes, “Never ask God for patience.” I would like to amend that to say, “Never ask God to help you become more humble.”

He will. He totally will.
There is absolutely nothing more humbling than cleaning a toilet.

No, wait.
There is absolutely nothing more humbling than cleaning a toilet that isn’t yours.

Hang on.
There is absolutely nothing more humbling than cleaning a toilet that isn’t yours in three separate locations. Six times. In one day.

Today was one of those days. It’s what I like to refer to as a six toilet day. That’s how many I cleaned starting at 7:45 this morning and ending at 3:30 this afternoon. I work part time cleaning houses/businesses with my Mom and there is nothing, I repeat, nothing more humbling.

Do I enjoy the actual work? Not really. Especially on days when the temperature flirts with the single digits, or the wind is biting, or the rain is wet and cold and just generally gross. I do take pride in doing a good job and leaving things nice and clean. But in truth, I would so much rather be home with my dogs and cats and working on one of the projects I’m more passionate about. However, work is a part of the human experience, and as of right now, none of my other numerous passion driven projects are actually pulling in enough (read any) money to live off, comfortably or not.

So we work. We spend our days sneezing (we’re both allergic to dust), disinfecting, cleaning, and vacuuming. We’ve done all manner of chores, and pushed ourselves physically when we didn’t think we could take one more step. We’ve gotten up early, worked all day, and then come home and worked some more on our passion projects- writing, theatre, editing, or film. Then, if we have the energy, we clean our own homes.

But. Here’s the thing. It’s through this job that my Mom and I have met some wonderful, wonderful people, and had many experiences that we will treasure long after this job is over. It’s through this job that we’ve both been given the time and opportunity to listen to hours and hours and hours and HOURS of podcasts that have helped teach and train us to become better writers, actors, editors or filmmakers.

It’s through this job that we’ve made contacts that have helped us with our writing, acting, editing or filmmaking. Several of the locations I used in The Hepburn Girls were obtained through our clients. They offered us their homes for filming locations, their support, and their enthusiasm. They have purchased and loved Mom’s book, watched my movies, and encouraged us to keep going.

It’s through this job and those same supportive, flexible clients that I’ve been able to take the numerous trips over the past few years that I never could have taken with a ‘traditional’ job.

It’s also through this job that I’ve been given ample amounts of time to think about my future, pray for God’s guidance, and seek His will for me and my life. There is a purpose for all this. We have been able to bless people, but more often than not, we have been blessed so much more by them in return.

It’s just a reminder for me to take a moment and realize that things could be much worse. There ARE worse things than cleaning a toilet.

I’m just not sure there’s anything more humbling.

Right at 35 days before my 35th birthday, Rachael and I found out that a book we wrote about our experience making our first film “No Lost Cause,” was being returned to us by the publisher after a year of waiting for it to be printed. Instead of wallowing in our collective misery, I committed to blogging every day while I searched for ways to overcome this perceived rejection and obstacle to our goal. I currently also have about three other projects brewing at the same time, and write about the progress of each of them. This is part of that series.

Read the first entry here: https://ashleyraymerbrown.com/2015/01/23/35-days-to-35-dealing-with-rejection/