Take Out the Papers and the Trash!

My friend Virginia once told me she heard a theory that a cluttered living space was a sign of a cluttered mind. I can totally buy that. And I've decided it's time to de-clutter my life. In all ways. I'm ready to take control. To stop letting life just happen.

I feel like I just waded through the week from hell. And I can't even really pinpoint what so royally sucked about the week. But something really did (there's a good possibility it was hormonal...). It felt like every time I would tell myself I would be positive and try again fresh each new day, that life would kick me. And kick me again. And it turns out, I'm not the only one who experienced such a cruddy week. It seems so many people I know are going through some massive trials. And sometimes that just really, really stinks.

I guess sometimes it takes some real tough times to force a person to make changes. And most of the time that isn't easy. Sometimes, in the end, we have to let go of the way we thought things would be and aren't. Sometimes we have to accept the way things turned out and go from where we are. Sometimes we have to watch a dream shatter. But then sometimes we just have to realize that what one of my favorite quotes from 10 years ago claims is true: That dreams are funny... Sometimes they come true differently than we expect.

And, frankly, I have too much to do in my life to just sit and wait for it to happen. If I want to write, then I need to write. I have recently read over some old blog posts, from when I was in Tuscaloosa and I wrote nearly every day (largely due to the type of job I had at the time...). My writing was more fluid. It just sounded better. And so I guess what they (they being authors) say is true: if you want to write, you have to write every day. There's obviously a reason for that.

If I want to go see the Eiffel Tower and the Great Pyramids and take a cruise through the Panama Canal, then I need to make it happen. I have the passport. I just need to save up the money. And I don't need to wait for my knight in shining armor to show up so that we can go together. Forget it. Because I may waste my life waiting for that.

I have a whole bucket list I need to tend to. And I'm going to start. Because one thing I've learned over the past few years about myself is that I can do hard things. I may not enjoy it. But I can do it. I pursued and earned a master's degree, and in order to do so, I had to move away from everyone and everything I knew at a very very difficult time in my life. And while I was there, I thrived. I had hard days, sure. But I was able to do what I went there to do, and I was able to do it without going into further debt. I also proved to myself this past year that I can accomplish other goals I set. While I have not done everything I set out to do this year, I have done a lot of it. And that helps me know I can in the future as well. And so I will set my goals, and I will cross those items off my bucket list. But first, it's time to take out some papers and some trash :). Because I'm starting with physical clutter first!