Keeping house.

The correlation between the state of my environment and the state of my inner workings is pretty remarkable. As a result, when I clean my physical home I find myself doing a lot of mental housekeeping, as well. When I pick something up off my desk or vanity or bureau or floor, the goal is to do one of three things: Trash it, recycle/donate it, or find a home for it. So often, I find myself saying, “I want/need this, but don’t have a place for it yet, so I’ll just make a pile for those things over here and come back to them as soon as the stuff I know what to do with is out of the way.” But without fail, that pile spreads across another surface, or grows into two piles, eventually becoming not only an eyesore, but a hindrance to the function of the room.

The same is true of my mental clutter. Plenty of it needs to just go, leaving room for the thoughts that will become actions that feel good and are representative of my best self. What remains after the junk is out also needs to be set in some kind of order, feelings and intentions and goals clearly defined, recognizable, and, most importantly, accessible rather than buried underneath resentment and fear and expectations and insecurity. Tonight as I sift through some of my physical clutter, I’m considering the state of my emotional home. Right now, there are a lot of things without a place, piled haphazardly and not really doing me any good. They deserve a dazzling display case, brightly lit and polished to a shine, with doors that swing wide open so I can get to all of the wonderful bits of me that I want to put to good use and share with the people in my world.

Today’s gratitude:

Improving relations in a situation that has been difficult for some time.

Books, books, and more books! I may actually hit 75 this year, for the first time since I started counting.

The little things that make me smile on my walks around Portland.

Sunsets.

The courage to embrace new things. Like broadening my plant collection. Meet Virginia: she is a lovely  and exotic lady I adopted at our farmers market yesterday. Since she is a Gemini, I think she wants to be both at work and at home, so I intend to attempt that magical feat sometime soon. Orrrrr, maybe I will adopt her twin to keep at home. Baby steps and all that.

Kirsten

Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment