New and Improved

In the last post, I talked about rousing this blog and bringing it new life. Since then I’ve been rousing myself, to create a new me. Not that there was anything drastically wrong with the old me, but I think it’s time for a new and improved model, sleeker, up-to-date, more effective.

All my life I’ve rushed from one thing to another with never a minute to catch my breath. So much to do and not enough time. That was my motto. I’ve finally realized that I don’t have to do everything. I can actually choose what to do and, more important, what not to do.

“Lucky, lucky, lucky me. I’m a lucky son of a gun. I work eight hours, and I sleep eight hours, and I have eight hours for fun.” Those words from an old song may tell how life’s supposed to be. But I seemed to be working all the time except the six, or at a stretch, seven hours I slept, a restless sleep that left me weary in the morning. If I stopped even a minute during the day, my eyes would go to half mast and my brain would follow. Then I’d race around trying to make up for lost time. Sleep deprived, that’s what they call it.

With the new me, I now let my engine stop racing and do a little body work before I pull into the garage at night. I force myself away from the computer at least an hour before my sleep start-time. I think it’s working. My motor is not quite so sluggish in the mornings and I don’t get stalled during the day. Plus I’m actually getting more done.

In this self-directed decluttering of my life, I’m dividing everything into three piles, keep, give away, and throw away. Believe me this is harder than bringing order to a messy house. So far in the keep pile, I have my family, my writing, my gardening, and my church, not exactly in that order. Among the giveaways is my doing everything that somebody else doesn’t do. The throw-aways include living up to expectations of other people and being a perfectionist, both extremely hard to give up.

As I look back at the keeps, I see that I need to prune away my useless, time-consuming, mind cluttering practices and adopt more a more productive modus operandi with my family, my writing, my garden, and my church. Not to neglect any of these, but to bring my best work in each area to a higher level, making me happier and my life more enjoyable. Gardeners know that a little judicious pruning now and then allows much healthier, more fruitful growth.

Stay with me and see what happens.