Moving On

Back to the downsizing, transitioning process.

It's truly amazing what you can get rid of when you realize you have finished that portion of your professional life.  Those copies of papers for the baptism/discipleship classes that you were going to organize someday -- recycled!  I got rid of an entire paper carton full of "things to be filed" today.  There is a bit of glee in getting rid of things related to the tasks that are not high on the list of "Things I Love to Do." 

I also went through the LARGE basket of recipe's I've torn out of magazines and newspapers, collected from the grocery store and on trips and whittled it down by at least half, if not two-thirds.  There were a lot of duplicates and some that I thought to myself, which of these recipes did I ever think I might make? 

The recipes are physical expressions of aspirations -- I will make healthier foods; I will plan far enough ahead that I will make thoughtful, handmade gifts for holidays; I will expand my repertoire of "go to" meals for those days when I stare into the refrigerator like the last almost-living zombie at the end of the world.  (Why do zombies only eat human brains?  After all, dolphins, chimps and elephants are pretty smart, right?  Wouldn't a well trained German Shepherd do in a pinch?  And what happens to zombies if they don't eat brains?  Can they die of hunger if they're already dead?).

But I digress.  Some of those recipes were at least 12 years old and there's still a good thick stack of them.  Why do I think I'm actually going to start making them?  And that's ignoring the recipes I've pinned on Pinterest .  Does electronic clutter count as hoarding?  At least I don't have to pack it.

Today marks the 100 day count-down to my retirement and I am simultaneously still not convinced that it's going to happen and in full panic mode in contemplating everything that will have to happen before that day.  I'm in the process of pulling out things for a yard sale and  trying to rearrange rooms for staging, so it looks like someone ransacked the place.  Today I will create a space for a clutter-free respite.