Foolish gibberish
I realized a few weeks ago that I have taken photos of one of my favorite places, Zig Zag Falls with almost all of my pinhole cameras. So I thought it might be fun to feature them in one blog post.
There are a few more cameras that haven’t seen Zig Zag Falls yet and now I will make it my mission to take them up there next summer! I have a few new ones coming, too.
The book, “The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo was recommended to me by a few friends. They have claimed that it has, indeed, changed their lives. I have been talking forever about decluttering my house and paring down but haven’t seemed to get a handle on it. So I thought I’d give this book a try.
I haven’t even finished it yet and I wanted to start right away on the decluttering part. She suggests doing it all at once, but first starting with clothes, then books, then papers, etc. The last items to get rid of are sentimental items. The criteria that you use in determining what to keep and what to let go of is holding the item in your hand and asking, “Does this spark joy?” That’s it. If it isn’t some thing that sparks joy then you get rid of it. I love this idea.. I love the idea of only possessing items that make us happy.
So I started this weekend on my clothes. I piled everything I own in a pile on the living room floor. It took about an hour to gather everything together. You get EVERYTHING. Everything from coats to socks and underwear, to bags. This is so you can see how much you actually have. Now I am not a packrat by any definition of the word. I am pretty OK with getting rid of stuff, but this is what my pile looked like when I was ready to sort through it all.
So I began. I picked up each article of clothing and asked “Does this spark joy?.” It was surprising what I decided to keep and what I decided to get rid of. I ended up discarding about 5 garbage bags and two boxes of clothes
It was hard to get rid of some things. And, admittedly, I did keep a few things out of guilt and not joy. I kept some sweaters that I knitted that I don’t really like but “I spent so much time on them so I should keep them.” That kind of thing. I am thinking that I need to take one more pass through everything. Guilt is a terrible reason to hold on to something. One of the really great things that she mentions that helped me let go of some things is that maybe the item has outlived it’s purpose, and if so, you can “thank it” for what it has done for you (or even the person who gave it to you) and send it on it’s way. I just thought this was beautiful. This philosophy really helped me as I went through the process. So in the case of my sweaters I can be happy that the sweater brought me joy when I was knitting it. That was it’s purpose.
When I was done sorting through everything it was time to put everything away. There is a special way of putting things away. There are hundreds of videos on Youtube that will show you how to fold clothes the Konmari way. The idea, essentially, is to fold everything into a square that you can then stand up in the drawer so that when you open your drawer you can actually see every item in the drawer. Brilliant!
I also had to hang up my work clothes. I was shocked when I realized how many hangers i had in my closet.
These were all mostly empty and taking up space!! So I got rid of a ton of hangers as well.
So now my clothes are organized and I already feel a million times lighter.
Now to move on to books. This is going to be much harder, I’m afraid!
I’ve fallen off of the drawing-everyday bandwagon again. This sketch of my backpack is the only thing I drew this past week. 😦
Other parts of the list:
“Once there was a young warrior. Her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear. She didn’t want to do that. It seemed too aggressive; it was scary; it seemed unfriendly. But the teacher said she had to do it and gave her the instructions for the battle. The day arrived. The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. They both had their weapons. The young warrior roused herself and went toward fear, prostrated three times, and asked, “May I have permission to go into battle with you?” Fear said, “Thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission.” Then the young warrior said, “How can I defeat you?” Fear replied, “My weapons are that I talk fast, and I get very close to your face. Then you get completely unnerved, and you do whatever I say. If you don’t do what I tell you, I have no power. You can listen to me, and you can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me. But if you don’t do what I say, I have no power.” In that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear. ”
― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
This day 6 years ago I faced the scariest, most heart-breaking thing I have ever experienced in my life. I sat at the bedside of my step-father as he died. It was frightening to watch him leave us forever. It was frightening to be face to face with death in such a way. But on the other hand, it was also the most profound and life changing moment of my life, too. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
While the time between grief stretches out a bit longer these days, it still hurts when I think about it.
I don’t ever want it to ever stop hurting.
Blatherskite 