From this morning’s walk, image by Eric

1. Truth: I’m on day two of cleaning and organizing my office. Today I found two canisters of pepper spray Eric put in my Christmas stocking a few years ago that have never been opened (backstory: Eric and the dogs got attacked by a dog running loose in our neighborhood, Sam put himself in between Eric and Ringo and the other dog, got hurt, and Eric wanted me to start carrying something that might help me if I got in a similar situation — problem is all I can imagine is getting out the pepper spray and using it, accidentally hitting myself or one of my dogs, or that I would hit whatever was attacking us and it would just make them mad, make the situation worse, so I don’t really want to use it), FIVE different coffee/tea mugs that I’ve been given as gifts or gifted myself but never made it to the kitchen cabinet so they could actually be used, a box of books I meant to donate to a local middle school THREE years ago, and a whole box of knick knacks and pictures and magnets and post it notes and other various office supplies from my CSU office. Blergh…

2. Truth: I hate this part of repacking, reorganizing, remodeling. You feel okay about the progress you’ve made, but the deeper you get into it, the deeper it seems to go, until it starts to feel like you’ll never ever finish. I also start getting sloppy and tired and have to work really hard to not start throwing things in boxes and hiding them in closets or the garage (which is where all this nonsense started) or convincing myself to just throw it all away.

3. Truth: Now I’m going to take a break. I’m going to leave this project as it is for now, start to cook some good food and look forward to relaxing and eating it, hanging out with some friends, slowing down for another day.

One wish: Wherever we are in the process, may we remember to pace ourselves, to take breaks and rest when we need to, to appreciate the preciousness of both making space and letting go.