Monday Musings 7-18-22

So, there’s a lot going on at my house right now, and some of it is, well, messy. My life always has the potential to get very messy. With four kids, five pets, and a busy career to balance, I never really know what’s around the corner, but sometimes the universe outdoes itself.

With family in town, my daughter getting ready to move across the country, and the busiest book travel schedule I’ve had in years, the pipes in our fully finished guest suite downstairs decided to fail spectacularly. Water also seeped under the floor on the main level, so we’ll need to have some of that flooring ripped up and refinished too. Mess. Everywhere.

The mitigation, demolition, and construction teams have been fabulous, and I’m sure the space will be beautiful, but seriously? I’ve had to dig deep into my toolbox of mindfulness techniques to maintain any sense of equilibrium, but after dusting off the rust from the last disaster, here’s what seems to work.

Let go. Hahahaha. But really, when we accept that so many things are simply out of our control, we don’t have to hold onto them anymore. We can let go and…

Breathe. My two decades plus of yoga practice has helped with this. When I simplify down to what’s essential, the list is pretty short. Taking one breath after another, putting one foot in front of the other, will eventually move me to the other side of the mess.

Okay, you say, but real stuff has to happen in the midst of the chaos, so how do you manage that?

Break projects down into manageable pieces. When I look at the project in its entirety, I’m for sure overwhelmed, but when I tackle things in small bits, I’m satisfied that I’ve accomplished something every day, I can see the forward progress, and I can continue to function day to day.

This works for writing books too. If I focused on the fact that I have approximately 90k words ahead of me every time I started a new project, I’d probably never write a single word again. Instead, I write scene to scene and chapter to chapter, until eventually I’ve created a whole book.

Laughter is excellent medicine. At the end of the day, laughing feels good. According to research from the Mayo Clinic, laughter can increase oxygen to the heart, lungs and muscles, increase the endorphins that are released by your brain, improve your mood and reduce physical pain. Not too shabby.

While I certainly wasn’t laughing when a cascade of water took out my entire sub-level, I definitely relied on funny cat memes to cheer me up in the days following!

Anyway, as I sit on my front porch listening to the soft summer rain, I am reminded that inner peace is always accessible, regardless of the circumstances. It’s a simple idea, but one that’s not always easy to embrace!

“Nothing can disturb your peace of mind unless you allow it to.”
― Roy T. Bennett

Monday Musings 10-5-20

We’ve finally gotten around to renovating our master suite. Every other part of the house has had a refresh, but of course our space was last. It was so bad in there that nails spiked up out of the ratty old carpet and snagged your socks, and my closet door fell off the hinges about a year ago and still stood propped against the wall holding my shoe rack. Ray and I would say to each other, “It’s time to get our room done." And then we’d leave and shut the door. There was always another priority. Now, though, the room is torn down to the studs, the contractor is meeting with the designer, and we’re a go for the remodel.

Those of you who know me, or have been reading my blog for a while, know that I like my space in order, and that I’m a bit over the top with my organizational systems. For example, when the kids were younger and we’d be coming up on the winter season, I’d dump all the winter clothes into a pile on the floor, boots included, and have them dress in whatever fit. Despite all the hand-me-downs, someone always needed a coat, another snow pants, someone else mittens, etc. I designed a spreadsheet which recorded who needed what and in what size, and then spent about thirty minutes online with LLBean placing our order. It beat the heck out of winter shopping with four kids in tow. See how my brain works?

What’s happening in my house right now goes against all that order. There are tarps strewn down the stairs, dust and dirt floating everywhere, and our spare bedroom upstairs is now ‘that room’ which holds everything we don’t know what to do with. I spun out in my head during the first few days of mayhem, but, thanks to years of being an obsessive-compulsive organizational freak, I’ve put things to right in my little world. We’ve moved into the cozy guest suite downstairs, the non-construction zones are clean and tidy, and my workspace is untouched.

This ability to create order from chaos has served me well over the years. It’s helped me run a large household, manage a multi-faceted career, and now keep myself (mostly) on track while working from home. The relationship between my physical space and my mental well-being is one I acknowledge. I can tune out quite a bit of stimulus and still be productive, but I can’t work amidst a mess. So, I take the extra time each morning to set things to right in my home and workspace. And, when there is more disturbance than usual, I find ways to control the chaos on a smaller scale.

In order to stay on target with my projects for the year, I have to finish the first draft of Dreamwalker this month, this same month that my house is upended and my kids are trying to navigate school during Covid. I’ll let you know how well my systems work! It’ll be a good test!

“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” - Benjamin Franklin