Simplify

-

That is the word of the year after responses to my last blog.

SIMPLIFY.

Clutter, paperwork, businesses, cooking, entertaining, my art.

As a result, I have been cleaning up piles, throwing things out, giving things away, selling things - which in turn will help make my life both emotionally and visually calm and more focused.

One of the books that I read this past summer was Rightsizing Your Life which was an excellent and interesting read, and it gives ways to help de-clutter one's home. I think I have the book Voluntary Simplicity buried somewhere in my house, and as the piles disappear (several already have) it will be discovered, at the exact moment I will be ready for it. (I believe that everything happens in its own time)

Part of this need for simplicity and change has been greatly influenced by my dealing with my aunt and her sister's estate, the fallout from their OCD/hoarding disorder, which is having a major impact on being able to clean it and sell the house. It is so bad that the estate could be lost...and I am one of the benefactors. That is for another story.

Off to clean a bit more.

Today's photo is ultimate simplicity. They know how to live.
I need to take note.

Patti O Cleaner

Comments

Judy Vars said…
I too suffer from the dis-ease of packratizm it's a ballancing act to keep my needs and wants to a minimum and saving everything only to throw it away later and grieve over the tossed treasure.
1:55 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

La Cucina

-
Image
Tonight my house had the aroma of olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and candles. Keith Jarret was playing in the background, and I had just opened a nice bottle of reasonable red wine. (Osborne Solaz, 2004 Temranillo/Cab- 7.00) I needed it for the sauce, so why not have some while cooking! I took good care of myself all weekend, and felt like cooking for the first time in what seems forever. I am an excellent cook. A collage cook one might say, or better yet, a bricollage cook. I take what is in the house and make a dinner out of it. I think about flavor, texture, color and variety. Most of the time I would rather put this creative energy into visual arts, but on occasion I will push my fine art aside, and the art of the evening is cooking. Candles, music, wine, and a lovely table. I must think more like Monet, and not only make the meal art, but somehow make it my visual art too. The best I could do was a photo of the beginning of the sauce. It looks rather bizarre if you ask me,...
Read more

I Don't Want to Get Any Older - I Want to Stay Just the Way I Am

-
Image
Such words of wisdom in the kitchen between Larry and Alanna yesterday. "I don't want to get any older Yiyi, I don't want to be a mommy, I want to be just the way I am." Funny that a four year old should be thinking of such heavy matter during the Christmas Season. I sat for a few moments, going back decades, digging deep in the vault of my childhood memories, remembering what it was like to be four. whooooossshhhhhhh I am watching our black and white TV, and I flash between visions of the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz and the bogeymen from the March of the Wooden Soldiers. I am looking out the window into the dark inky sky of Christmas eve, believing that if I concentrated hard enough, I could make Santa and his reindeer appear flying between the twinkling stars. (ps I used that concentration when I fished all those years ago with #1 - to get the fish to come to MY lure....) I am lying in bed trying to go to sleep on Christmas Eve. I feel like I am on speed,...
Read more

Sunday Ramble

-
Image
In yoga today my teacher talked about acceptance of life and of self, something which is a challenge to both the young AND the old. I was thinking about that yesterday when I was passed by my new full length antique mirror which leans against the wall in my hallway. I pass it from the shower to the bedroom every morning. Sometimes I stop and look and remember when I had the body of a runner, when there was no inch of pinch, or bulges, or dimples. Now, I look and chuckle, noting the attack of cellulite, the bumps, lumps, scars, spots, and veins, though if I squint my eyes and keep the light off, I can still see the framework of that runner’s body. I chuckle now because I am comfortable about my body. It took 50 years…many wasted with negative thoughts about my self which were so crazy. Part of my acceptance might also be the unconditional love that I have in a man who loves me for who I am and never says a thing that isn’t kind. (sometimes I hate that Larry..because it makes me loo...
Read more