Today is my Dad's 82nd birthday. I called to wish him a good day, and many more to come. He pointed out that he hasn't got many more to come. I wish I could spend more time with my parents.
Today is known as Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, 40 days before Christ's resurrection (mistakenly referred to as Easter... but you can look that up yourself if you are interested.)
Many religions use Lent as a time to "give something up", in remembrance of Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness. Less religious folk sometimes observe this period for various causes, and make use of the time period to make changes in their lives.
One such thing going around is to de-clutter, tossing/ donating one bag of items from ones home every day for forty days. My life can use less clutter, and I have nearly 35 years worth of various collections to go through. I am thinking, pick one drawer per day. If I am keeping stuff from the drawer, it goes back in... or to an assigned "home" for that object.
I have many "floating" items. Not gravity defiant- but objects I have never decided a "home" location for. I pick them up from where they are sitting- in my way at that moment- and not having a "home", they are set down in another location... until that too is in my way. I must assign homes to these items... and not just stuck into some random drawer to be forgotten about until I get "a round tuit" and clean out the drawer again... which might be years.
I need to deal with sentimentality. Most of my kids could not care less to keep some toy that they favored as a toddler. I have boxes of photographs, many as blurry as my brain. Random scenery... of places no photo can do justice to capture... and I don't recall where half those places were. The task seems too large to tackle. But maybe, one drawer at a time. One box at a time, one day at a time, in a committed manner... I can overcome. I am prone to continuing to hold on to special things- cards from my kids, a gift from a friend, items that made my grandmothers smile.
I don't HAVE to keep 10+ years of just the mundane letters, as much as I might like to. Many of these are already burdensome simply by volume. Keep the special ones, let go the rest.
I am trying to stay busy, as the anniversary approaches. It's just an anniversary of some stupid random day. I should be able to breeze though by now.
I wanted today to be a productive day, and I have made a start on general cleaning/ maintenance. I will have to pick a very easy drawer or hot-spot to de-clutter today, or it isn't going to happen... and then, knowing myself... I can't do it every day because I didn't start on the proper day! So, may your day be blessed. Say a prayer for someone on your heart.
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