I made mention before that I really want to get rid of my pack rat tendancies this year. Since getting sick really threw a wrench into finishing up that one weekend, I decided last week to not turn on my computer until at least 8pm on work days so that I'm not distracted by it and can actually be productive. Unfortunately, I haven't kept to that every day, but the days that I have, I've really felt good about myself and gotten stuff done. I even made a few phone calls to friends whom I had been neglecting.
I also decided to finally start reading the book that Mike had loaned me many, many months ago when I told him that I really did want to get rid of all the clutter. It's called Living the Simple Life: A Guide to Scaling Down and Enjoying More by Elaine St. James. He said that it really helped him when he decided to make that choice several years ago. For whatever reason, I never got around to reading it. So now, in waiting rooms, at laundry mats, etc. I read from it when I can. Today at the laundry mat, a passage really hit home:
In order to simplify, we have to start making choices, sometimes difficult choices. And often it means saying no, even to the things we want to do.Shortly after Gibbs and I began to take steps to simplify, we found ourselves having dinner with some friends who were into hang gliding.
We spent the entire evening listening to them rave bout the thrill of this fascinating sport. As we sat there being seduced by yet another activity, we imagined ourselves leaping off the cliff and soaring silently over the beautiful hills behind our home.
By the time the evening was over we'd promised our friends we'd meet them at six o'clock the next morning on a nearby peak to try out their gear and have or first lesson.
All the way home we talked about how wonderful it would be to start hang gliding.
Then we walked through the front door, looked at each other, and reality began to set in. We reminded ourselves of how little time we actually have available. We realized there was no way we'd be able to fit a new sport into our schedule, especially one as time and energy consuming as hang gliding. We knew that our short list would suffer if we did. And our short list had been suffering long enough.
When we analyzed it carefully, we realized hang gliding was not as high on our list as we'd originally thought.
Reluctantly, we called our friends and explained why we wouldn't be able to join them.
That sounds very much like my current situation with Snowboarding. Snowboarding was always something I vaguely wanted to do. However, it wasn't until I was offerred a free snowboard that I decided to make the effort. But, really, it's not a high priority on my list. I've just felt somewhat obligated now that I have a free snowboard and I've told my brother that I'm interested. However, I think I'm going to have to put this idea aside, at least until next season. I'm going back to school now, Mike & I are moving into a house for rent in just a couple weeks (yes, I know, I haven't blogged about that yet), and I really just want to get my life uncluttered. So I am going to say "no" now for the rest of this season so I don't have to feel guilty every time I'm asked to go.
Having said all that, it's time to get back to sorting and pitching...
