the power of lice

Underneath my oak tree at the Sherman Beach overlooking Candlewood Lake, I sat in my canvas chair prior to the first day of school listening to other moms summon the curse of lice upon them. In my Evangelical insistence to not activate that vibration, it was I, or more accurately my children, to whom the lice flocked. The years and years of misconception and condemnified debt of those stricken with lice during my school years had all, in that one moment, been karmically delivered. These infinitesimal parasites that only live off of a human head are not "The Plague" as the school nurse explained. All things considered, however,  in our hermetically sealed Western civilization I beg to differ. Had this occurred two years ago I would have dropped dead of a heart attack. Mortification coupled with the sheer incredulity that something so minuscule could result in so much upheaval and inconvenience. The empathetic coos from other mothers in hopes to assuage embarrassment , "...Lice prefer clean heads..." go into the gutter...because, lets face it, unless a scalp is swimming in olive oil no amount of naturally occurring scalp grease can deter a louse. Had my children's state of personal hygiene been more thorough I can bet that my perspective on lice would remain dormant.

holy shit this sucks...

Upon initial impact I dare say that the size of my house impacted the degree of my protruding eyeballs as my head wrapped around the miles and miles of laundry and house cleaning that lied ahead. It also didn't help that two hours prior to this discovery I had made a proclamation denouncing all worldly possessions at the desire to live in a tee pee preferably located on a nudist reservation. I wouldn't put myself past it if I didn't have such a fetish for my kick-ass boots or derive so much enjoyment by conveying my daily moods through my palate of textiles and colors.


These creatures, compounded by the arrival of our puppy who was suffering from a rapid purge of cat food, tested my faith in the Universe. How was I going to be able to apply the concept of gratitude amidst this scenario? What is the purpose of lice? How did they get here. This is not my house. This is not my life....I begged a friend for a merciful drive by de-licing with a can of gasoline and a match. Quietly however, the hours of combing, picking and washing hair allowed a counter intuitive force of baboonish nurturing to envelope us. Focusing on each individual task helped alleviate the immensity of the whole.

Cetaphil encrusted heads lay on the freshly laundered linens as I teetered on the cresting and periodic wave of insanity. Trevor's impish voice could be heard from his side of the quarantined room as he learned that he would be issued a leave of absence from the next day of school, "Thank you Universe...may I have some more?" he giggled in perfect comedic timing. Much to their disappointment, however, lice do not warrant a two week absence. Once realizing that this also prevented any circulation for the entire weekend, the next day his sense of friendless-asphyxiation settled deep. Contact was at a minimum due to the sheer ferocity of my need to purge; The kids had to guard their possessions closely. Any time spent on the phone would mean that their kingdom of toys could be pillaged. My friends knew that I would be too busy to talk. Either that or they were afraid to make me cry. "Mom, look at the clouds....I feel as if we are the only family left alive, " Trevor remarked.

So, as it turns out my gears started to turn once my husband returned from five days away. Progress achieved once I could tackle these rooms and laundry without interruption. Then momentum kicked in and projects started branching further from the source. The cat barf on the carpet was finally removed, the blue tape on the window hardware peeled off after three years of contemplating a second coat, overstuffed bins of unused toys were unceremoniously escorted out of the house bag by bag. Terror in my children's eyes brought them to a state of solidarity with intuitive reasoning that they had to work as a team to avoid further dissolution of mommy's state of sanity. This brusque state of  household resurrection was aided by other wonderful addendum of grass cutting and garage cleaning, door installations and weather stripping, dresser refinishing and refrigerator cleaning. The power of lice is really quite extraordinary.

It was only after the siege had passed did I realize the immensity of what I had experienced. From the onset the lens on my camera was enabled with gratitude...looking to make sense of these conditions and knowing without a shadow of a doubt that I was being selected to undergo this test. The biggest realization though was that only when my husband mentioned how much he was looking forward to a beer at the end of the day did it strike me that never once did I feel the need to alleviate this discomfort with alcohol. My three years of meditation and the last year of removing alcohol from my repertoire held fast....diving deep into the dark recesses to cleanse and purify in combination with gratitude of living moment to moment we were rewarded with trinkets of joy that had gone missing months prior - symbols of loving appreciation that the Universe does deliver in ways even better that you could conjure on your own.

The Universe's symbolic gesture

Don't get me wrong...I wouldn't readily welcome a repeat performance of this experience. I wouldn't even wish this on my worst enemy...not that any exist. However, the cues from the Universe that prompted us into action and mobilized the troupes delivered a great sense of cohesion and unity. In the seemingly arduous tasks and responsibilities of which we have no control over, we are given a choice of perception. By grounding in gratitude no matter the circumstances, appreciation and beauty can be excavated.

Tatum after undergoing lice treatment plan