She led me into the living room and began apologizing for not having had time to refinish the floors. I told her about my knife drawer and how, when I slam it, silverware shoots to the back and gouges out little bits of wood. My cutlery nestles on a bed of wood chips and bread crumbs.

She sank into a lazy boy. I leaned forward and confided that I sanded down the bottoms of my burnt cookies on the cheese grater. A timid smile crept across her face.

When she pulled a Kleenex out of her sleeve and began dusting the legs of the coffee table, I reached out and took her hand. "I once used to feel better," I said, "when it was clean behind the fridge."

I told her of many things as we sat there in the glare from her coffee table - of bags of ironing fighting off mold in my freezer, of dirty dishes shoved under the bed out of sight of the unexpected company. Her eyes filled with tears and, I thought, new hope.

I went on about how one day I'd found myself hanging out the wash so that it was color coordinated and something had snapped. Would Einstein have come up with that MC squared thing if he'd burnt out his brain cells with laundry? Was Joan of Arc remembered for a shiny floor?

My friend leaned forward eagerly as I pulled a small printed tract from my purse and read, "There is no evidence that anything other than the simplest house cleaning has any affect on the health of your family. Actually, thorough cleaning increases asthmatic attacks from the cleansers and the disturbed dust."

She jumped to her feet and reached out to me. "What can I do?" she asked.

I invited her to the weekly support group and told her how I'd got such help from the big tent meeting held each year at spring cleaning time. Finally, I leaned forward and fastened a pin to her sweater – a vacuum crossed by a thick red line.

Soon we were hunched together over the kitchen table sharing a dripping tea bag back and forth and dunking cookies right from the tin into mugs of tea. Then arm and arm, leaving behind dirty dishes and cookie crumbs, we strolled out the door singing, "Downtown, we're going to go downtown."

Hazel Jardine is my new hero. She has overcome years of anxiety, has a wonderful marriage and is a humorous writer.

"...wanted to send a note your way. You guys are right, "just do it" and "look how far you've come" and "we don't do it that way anymore" and "every situation has something good hidden inside." I didn't really get it in my heart before, and now my eyes have the film taken off. It is a miracle. I am a new creation." Teri

"Dear Lucinda ...several times a day it still amazes me that your program has provided me with the skills to think more positively, and so much more. Lists can be tedious, but the following one exhilarates me and motivates me to share it. These are the things I CAN do now that were unfeasible to me a few months ago.

Worry less about my children, who are in college

Shower without needing someone to talk to on a speakerphone

Drive into town by myself

Go through the entire day and night without a debilitating or even minor panic attack

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