Miles of Piles Shuffled Again

This week I set out to go through, yet again, my miles of piles. It never ceases to amaze me how much shit I have. When I left Hawaii I got rid of tons of crap. I figured I would spend a lot of time here doing crafts, so I sent myself 300 colored pens, 10 really cool coloring books, a pile of half empty notebooks, paints, inks, brushes, more pens, drawing paper, rice paper that I have not used in fifteen years, beads, sewing stuff. These are just for crafts and represent only the things I had my hands on today. There is a lot more!

The paperwork is another story. Every printed page from the online writing classes, greeting cards I created but never sent, every credential I have ever had, including a 1986 three day pass to Disneyworld, memberships to the Musket Cove Yacht Club in Fiji and the Neiafu Club in Vava’u, Tonga, (I always believe I will revisit these places) and notes that I made into file folders for things I would DEFINITELY write about. It’s all just a big stinky pile of cat-piss scented papers now. The topics are good but the information is old. I get new ideas every day. (They come and go rapidly; some are gone before I have found the paper and pens.) I think the lesson here is: if I write in the morning on paper, I should try to find my notes the same day, put the ideas into a computer file, and make sure to throw the papers away immediately. I have been writing by hand and just filing those papers.

What was I planning to do with EVERY travel section from the Kona newspaper in 2006? Not just a page here or there, but entire sections. I get the newspaper here in Mérida and there are new, more interesting, and of course, more current issues at hand.

So far I have filled one bag of trash. I simply want my shit organized and I want less of it. And so goes the process of sorting through my present life. I overthink reasons why I cannot think straight, and today’s excuse is that my stuff is too disorganized. One article I was toting around was about an author who cleaned out her miles of piles so she could think clearly. Ah, I am on the right path after all, I thought. I read it and tossed it.

After taking a break to write this, I tackled the large pile of files. As I was going through them I found all the resentment and anger I was feeling in my falling from grace period in Hawaii after Jim’s passing. There were so many things there that pissed me off; I ended up manicly cutting articles out of the paper and filing them. What was I going to do? Lead a 1-person revolution? I wanted to, but that is not the point. Instead I chose to leave it behind and today I finally set that negative bullshit free! The trash collectors have already taken it away! Now a swipe of sage or maybe this lavender incense over here and I will be among all positive vibes. It feels much better. And I got the room quite functional. It is not feng shui but I am not Oriental.