So, September, summer holiday time over, kids back to school, and routine, less road trips for a while for me.
So ive gone in to tackle the sitting room, a room that has been the lair of teens and preteens over the holidays. It is also kind of the music room, because my house is small, with guitars, hifi, cds.... and a study and homework kind of room too, as well as TV room. I have done a perfunctionary clean here and there, but now I have gone in, (like Hazmat haha) to do a deep clean, rearrange, clear those corners etc. I am now actually realising that ive been not using this room at all myself for about a year or two.

I'm having an emotional tough time cleaning it; just feeling all sorts: that I dont like the room, I feel lonely in this room, I can never relax in it, I dont like the house, TV is depressing etc... all that stuff churning. I'm thinking, maybe I'm feeling this housework resentment thing *because* I am fixing the room, not for me, but just for their kids and their friends; I'm thinking from the outside, about what outsiders might view, rather than from within.

I asked Yi "How do I work from within, make the room nice for myself too, so that I use it too, so that I have my friends in it too? Or refining it, whats the best way to approach making this room a nice relaxing part of the home? "

So Yi's answer, Hexagram 22.3 to 27.
from Hillary:

How can you make the essence visible to others?
What do you choose to communicate?
Oracle
'Beauty. Creating success.
Small yield from having a direction to go.'

Click to expand...

Thats interesting, the idea that the arrangement of a room is communication, that a living room communicates from the heart (and hearth) of the home, about the essence of the home, our home, and our family.

I will ponder this...

No created image could ever express a whole person.

So this is not a time to concentrate on results: it's a time for imaginative, lively exploration of beautiful ways the essence could flower and be seen.

Click to expand...

Changing Lines

Line 3
'Beautiful, as if dipped in water.
Ever-flowing constancy, good fortune.'

Click to expand...

Does this mean: Make it shiny,
Glittery?

Or Fung Shui thinking, focus on free flowing energy, no corners, how do people move around the room?

Maybe I'll go look up Fung Shui for a North West facing Living room

Anyone any thoughts or ideas?

Hi EmMacha! I empathize with your predicament though my daughter is very small so it's a different set of problems (toys underfoot and everything dangerous stashed in out of the way places right now...)

Just riffing here, but could you turn this room into the dining room or somehow make it a place where people gather to eat? That's what the 27 suggests to me.

Overall 22.3 is such a nice, encouraging reading for tackling a project like this. The 22 suggests you should focus on how to bring out the space's latent beauty. "Creating success.
Small harvest in having a direction to go." Just getting started, having goals, making small changes, will help.

From the image: "EmMacha brings light to the many standards, but does not venture to judge legal cases." This suggests to me you should implement expectations for how the space will be maintained by those who use it, but in a non-judgmental way. Maybe rally the kids to feel invested in keeping the space clean for everyone, but in a very positive manner. If the conversation veers in a conflicted direction and they start blaming each other (or you), make sure to bring it back to a "we're going to start now with a clean slate, not look back and accuse each other" etc.

Line 3 is quite lovely and auspicious. Dipped in water...can you paint the room? Maybe a nice strong white or cream that makes it feel brighter? Or how about new curtains? A painting or photograph of water/ocean?

Would love to hear how this turns out!

Apologies to not submitting a reply before now; * had one composed over a few days, but either it did not save, or my slightly glitchy phone went back a page and I lost it.

Yes the living room turned out well, glittering; "shining like water", well the evening that i finished it, I had some friends home after a night out dancing, a few drinks.
Ies but I did arrange the candleholders, and clear some surfaces etc, so it was shining.
I cleaned it so much.
Update is that it is easier to get it clean, but my daughter is upset with the youngest, because he does leave mess. I am trying to set the boundaries in a non judgemental way... but now, the issue is TV time, and that the youngest appears to have been chewing the remote, leaving it wet! Needless to say, my daughter is not impressed by this! Not the nicest interpretation of "dipped in water"!

I do sit in it more often, but I am not a TV watcher, haha i left the TV tonight to meditate...

I think the cast really helped, in an almost subconscious creative way too, because I actually feel I achieved a slight improvement in the room, and in the arrangement of light (lamps and candleholders, window free etc).

I didn't really have the means, time or energy to paint the room, but i did arrange some sea shells in a dish in the west.

Thanks for responding and supporting Mulberry, again apologies for late replying

Em