planning and decluttering

Happy Monday!

It's a very happy Monday here, because it's the first official day of my vacation. Ah, yes. A week long vacation in August. And I feel especially lucky because it seems that I have picked the best week weatherwise all year. So the outlook is good.

The outlook is good not just because of the weather, but because at long last, I seem to have A PLAN. A plan so good that only all caps and a different color can convey its significance.

THE PLAN came to me in one big, giant, gleam of clarity while I was swimming across the pond, trying to dodge the scary evil Harry Potter mermaids that I know live there. (ok, maybe they're just lilly pads. But they still wrap around my arms and legs. And if they had the means to do so, they'd pull me to the bottom in a second!)

I'm not going to get into the specifics of THE PLAN right now, but rest assured, it's good. It almost feels superfluous to adhere to the monthly goal thing I have going, because I have successfully completed the biggie -- the goal for the year. (In truncated form: get a clue)

No, I'm not going to get into the specifics now, because I want to spend some time chewing on that fact that THE PLAN came to me in one fell swoop. I remember the moment that it happened; it was like a big spherical glowing light just exploded in my brain. Yet at the same time, I know that in reality, it didn't happen in one fell swoop at all.

I've been thinking for the past several days about these things we do with our time. In my case, the goal-setting, the planning, the de-cluttering, the endless reading of piles of books, the running and biking and swimming and overthinking everything. And I was thinking a lot about my friend, the motivational speaker. (whom I haven't thought about in years)

While I say that my experience of THE PLAN'S conception was sudden, powerful, and all inclusive, I suspect that its conception really occurred on 1/1/09 when I decided I needed a goal for the year. I suspect that the organizing, goal setting, cleaning, analyzing, donating, recycling, exercising, writing, and analyzing some more really was the catalyst for it all. I suspect it was slowly taking form in my subconscious mind all the while and just came together in one fell swoop. (Or maybe the great, glowing orb in my brain was a defense mechanism against evil mer-people)

My point here is that even though some things may seem useless and rather pointless (endless cleaning, getting rid of one thing a day everyday, plowing through books that have been sitting on the bookshelf for 5 years unopened, clapping and chanting "Never give up") maybe those are the very things that propel us forward to the more useful and relevant event in life.

Which brings me to the decluttering. As the weather got nice and the vacation got closer, the decluttering just seemed more and more unnecessary. Not because all my clutter in gone, but because ... "what's the point?" I didn't feel like attacking the storage area or the kitchen or the bathroom. I didn't feel like recycling one more thing. I DID feel like I was suffocating in clothing. (And really? I don't have nearly as much clothing as most people. I hate to shop and have no sense of style. I can't imaging what closets look like in the homes of people who like to shop)

So this week, I just yanked open drawer after drawer on the dresser and pulled out articles of clothing that didn't fit, didn't look good on me, that I was never going to wear again. I stuck them all in a duffel bag and quickly zipped it shut. No carefully orchestrated sorting, so emotional attachments, no whimsical observations. Just open -- discard -- slam. Next drawer.
Way more than 7 items of clothing.

And way more pondering to do yet.