One of the outcomes of this crazy time we have been living in is my visceral need to RELEASE!
It is like a calling. A voice telling to me to release STUFF– but, also to release OLD HABITS and OUTDATED BELIEFS that no longer serve me. All of these cluttered things and ways of thinking are holding me back from expansion. They are holding me back from joy. So…
- I am reading the books I’ve been “saving” to read on vacation (I would need to be permanently on vacation to finish them all)
- I am pulling out the bazillion skeins of yarn stored in my closet and creating some new, imperfect projects (rather than saving it all for some special project that never gets realized)
- I am sorting through my hall closet to purge items I never use and embrace what is trapped in a back corner (I know there are things I have not even touched since I moved to this apartment almost a decade ago)
- I am using all the fancy paper napkins that I saved for literally a decade for that special party I was going to throw (and never did)
- I am writing notes to friends on the reams of stationary and cards I have been saving for just that perfect occasion (and then would buy more in the process as the “special” stationary went unused)
- I am pulling out photos of family and friends to put in frames around my home and on the screensaver of my Apple TV. My homes have only had a handful of photos displayed for almost THIRTY YEARS (instead of waiting for the perfect frames and perfect configuration)
- I am writing in the pretty notebooks that I saved for just the right thoughts (umm… aren’t all my thoughts important?- ha)
- I began enjoying my morning coffee from the prettiest coffee mugs– from the hodge-podge collection gifted to me by a variety of fabulous women in my life (I smile and connect with that particular woman every time I sip from “her”)
- I am eating dinner on the beloved (and chipped) set of dishes that don’t match a single thing in my house – dishes when put together as a set create an image of Seurat’s painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (my absolute favorite piece of art!)
And I reconfigured and reorganized all the art on my walls. Even bought myself a few new pieces that utterly delight me. One of the best things I have done- FOR ME- is to place framed prints and original artwork featuring SNOW all around my house. I can always see snow! (ohhh- if you know me, you know that snow is one my my very favorite things!)
Two of the pieces of original art are especially significant. One from a West Coast artist and another from a talented friend in NYC. Both paintings made me cry when I saw them displayed. I bought them for myself around the same time– over 18 years ago–when I was in a truly miserable point in my marriage– and the same fate befell them both. They were shoved into storage until I left that marriage. In my first “single” home after my marriage ended, I hung them proudly.
Yet somehow in my current apartment, they were sidelined again. Until this week when they joined the collection of “snow art” decorating my walls and inspiring me every day!
What are you “waiting” to use in your life?
What “perfect circumstances” is it time to abandon?
