SPRING CLEAN

I aspire. I'm not even at my own house right now, but I'm feeling the sap rising--that impetus to start tossing stuff out. I'm rereading Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston. Most books about organization are written by naturally organized people who don't understand how clutterbugs can be that way. They have such helpful tips as:

OHIO: Only Handle It Once
Create a system
Everything has a place, & a place for everything.
Tackle one thing at a time.
If you haven't used it in a year, chuck it.
Put things back when you're finished.
Repair it or chuck it.

And so on. It's all so common sense. But to paraphrase John Morgan, it's not your intellect that got you into this mess and it's not your intellect that will get you out. Enter Karen Kinston, who acknowledges and respects the subconscious. "Your home is an outward representation of what is going on inside you, so if you are messy on the outside there is a corresponding mess of some kind on the inside too. By sorting out the outer, the inner starts slotting neatly into place. "

It's interesting how she relates emotional states to disorganization. She said she's never met a "depressed" person who didn't have a mess of a house. Which came first? It doesn't matter. Your environment is what keeps you stuck where you are. To paraphrase Bruce Lipton, "Change your environment, change your life."

Your subconscious mind will suppress these things nicely for you if you ask it to, but it takes a lot of your energy to do so.

We're still talking about our homes, right? Oh, she delves into way more!

P.S. John had a great post on clutter a few months ago with an interesting meditation exercise. Go see.

MATH!

What we need

That's right, a little healing:


I have a new-to-me blog to read: The Fail Blog. Real examples of paradox, misspellings, & grammEr mistakes. Hysterical. I found it from my current fave Cakewrecks. Humour is everywhere if you're looking for it, and this is the everyday kind of humour I appreciate. Have a FUNny day. :-)

Hysterical, as in funny

Saw these while thrifting. Better than putting on your cranky pants. ;-)

Book Club

Jerry Stocking started a book club & this is what we're reading. It's really a fascinating study on gender roles and differences. Norah Vincent becomes Ned and:

Joins a bowling team

I threw like a girl and it bugged me as much as it bugged them. If I told them the truth at the end of the season I didn't want them to have the satisfaction of saying, "Oh, that explains everything. You bowl like a girl because you are a girl."

"I gotta say," he said finally, "that takes balls . . . or not, I guess. Wow, you're a F-ing chick. No wonder you listen so good." ~Bowling buddy on being told Ned is really Norah.

"You're cool. I don't care what you are. I really like bowling with you, man. Shit, you're cooler than Bob." This wasn't exactly the collest thing to say in front of Bob, since Allen was Bob's in-law.

Visits strip clubs

"I go to some of these bars, " he said, "and this is the family man in me, and I say to myself, these girls were sombody's daughter. Somebody put them to bed. Somebody kissed them and hugged them and gave them love and now they're in this pit."

"Or maybe someone didn't," I said.

"Yeah," he nodded. I've thought about that, too."

Goes on dates with women

You were the eager athlete, the brightly colored bird doing the dance, and she was the German judge begrudging you the nod.

I still talked too much with my hands, and sometimes I still applied my Chapstick with a girlish lip smack.

I found myself thinking about rejection and how small it made me feel, and how small most men must feel under the weight of what women expect from them. I was an actor playing a role, but these women had gotten to me nonetheless.

"Maybe some part of me knew," she said. "I don't know. You made so much eye contact. You listened so well. You weren't hairy. I'm not sure."

Stays at a monestery

. . . where she's suspected of being gay by some of the other monks. And she makes the mistake of calling an elderly monk "cute." "He's not cute. You don't call other men cute."

And this is as far as I've gotten in the book. It's funny & sad & thought-provoking. Thanks, Jerry for turning me on to the book! :-) H.

P.S. Jerry now has a blog! Go see.

Quotes for the Day

Can't nothing make your life work if you ain't the architect. ~Terry McMillan

Stop wearing your obstacles like a hair shirt. ~ Margot Potter

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. ~Chinese Proverb

You can have what you want or your reasons why not. ~Jerry Stocking

I’m all for riding the current wherever it takes me, but there must be a reason they put paddles in the boat. ~John Morgan

Day of Rest: Down My Road

It's on the verge of spring. I can feel it, even tho we're in a final cold snap & had a dusting of snow. The birds are singing more to wake the trees from their slumber and all around we're waiting for the world to awaken once again.

Sometimes you'll see these cows standing in the river, drinking.

There's not a lot of colour going on, everything is muted shades of browns & grey. But the light this time of year is spectacular and it draws your attention more to all the textures going on. There's also a clarity and crispness to the air that's hard to describe.

Here's a study in negative space! And the sky was SO BLUE this day!

Final bend around my road.

I see hearts wherever I go. :-)