Be set free to sing or hum along

No. 11 | I read a popular writer recently who encouraged his readers to put their key life lessons into brief, memorable statements.  He may have used the word pithy.  No matter, many life lessons are learned the hard way.  Capturing them, remembering them, being ready to share them are all good things.  I appreciate the encouragement given by the author.  

I have gone part way on this very thing for quite some time, but I have not been particularly intentional about it.  I certainly was not in the habit of writing my memorable life lesson statements down.  I do so now.   

I have found as I have formed the habit of putting them into writing that I am still quite busy learning.  This is a good thing as I know all too well that I still have much to learn.  And that is not all bad as I love learning.   

I set out to write about this idea that I tend to call “Hard Questions.”   

Continue reading “Hard Questions”

No. 10 | I feel like I have been on a mission of decluttering for years.  As I consider the details and the calendar, I have in fact been on a mission of decluttering for exactly that, years.  To confess, I do have some packrat tendencies to overcome.   

I read each of the Kondo books.  I read them before there was a Netflix special for binge-watching.  They were recommended to me by a friend.  To that friend, I continue to offer sincere thanks.  

To be sure, I made a lot of speedy progress early on, and I cannot recommend highly enough the effort.  My sock and tee shirt drawers continue to be joyful, tidy little spaces.  I continue to be a folding kingpin, at least around my house.  I am pleased to share that my kids have taken up at least some of these helpful “keep things tidy” habits.   

I must also confess that I still have quite a long way to go.  I have been going through boxes and boxes of things. Junk really. I have been throwing things away like a man fighting like mad against a hoarding instinct.  Funny, as I think of it now, the problem with much of the stuff that I have been going through in the latter parts of this effort has indecision as the underlying problem.  That thought has me thinking not only of the call to Tidy Up but also the call the Get Things Done.  Handle a piece of paper only once and all of that.   

Continue reading “Rediscovering Lost Things”

No. 9 | “If only” is a dangerous and perilous path.  It is a road to nowhere or at least a road to nowhere any of us should want to go.  “If only” may not be a road at all, but more an ever-expanding and deepening hole one digs, the dark bottom from which the climb out seems more and more impossible with each passing day.   

I wish that I did not know what that hole-darkness can feel like.  “If only” is powerlessness.  It is to take up residence in victoms-ville.  It is a place you can go alone for sure. Unfortunately, we often find a community of like-minded sorrow wallowers there with whom to commiserate.  That community if we find it does us no favors.  

To ruminate on the thoughts that tend to accompany these words is to sentence ourselves to continue in whatever discontent in which we find ourselves.  It is a terrible and circular self-fulfilling prophecy, a tail-chasing endeavor. 

Continue reading “If Only”