Not Do or Do and Finding

Not-To-Do-List:

·       Worry about things I have no control over. Most of the things I worry about never happen, but when I worry about them the stress does.

·       Diet to get ‘skinny’. Instead, I’ll eat and exercise for what’s good for me, makes me feel better.

·       Please everyone. Too damn hard. I’m going to start treating me like my own best friend.

·       Watch make-over segments on TV, wondering if I should die my graying hair or cut said hair.  

·       Worry about my aging looks. I’ve earned every bit of and it ain’t so bad considering.

·       Be unappreciative of my body ever again. It has fought the good fight and (this is especially gratifying to say) won. I never want to take it for granted again.

·       Let ‘mean girls who have turned into mean women’ get to me anymore.

Today:

I’ve been playing Whitney Houston music all morning. It took some doing to find the cassette stored away in old Pepsi wooden crates and a little finger-crossing that the old cassette deck would still work, but after listening to the short stanzas played over and over on the news, I ached to hear the whole experience of her voice. The excavation was worth it.

It was the best way I could think to honor and thank her for what she gave us.

Singing is so connected to a person’s heart, I think. Singing (or listening to someone else) of heartbreak, love, God brings it out into a reality. It is deeper than tears or smiles. We carry music with us throughout our lives. It is connected to our memories, our histories. As Dick Clark says, Music is the soundtrack of our lives, and we each have a personal playlist that introduces the chapters of our life. So when we hear a song we recognize, we hear a memory too.

Finding:

There was an antique show Saturday and, of course, I went. The crowd made the treasure hunt difficult and not as pleasant as I hoped. It was hard to make way through the crush into the booths and once in the booth moving through to look at all the items was more than a little frustrating. Still, for all that, I had fun and found some great things. Notably a wooden desk organizer, perfect next to my printer. As I was cleaning the dust from the wooden shelves, I found a bunch of papers shoved into the back. I love that kind of thing.

I found several staplers and two garden sprayers to add to my collections and the book, Westward by Rail.

Speaking of finding treasures, I’m still going through dejunking and organizing my office, making progress, thinning out old books, I’m no longer using and reassessing  decorating choices. Of course, there are files to go through, copy or get rid of, but with every step I’m improving the function of the room and my work.

Progress is slow, but steady, but I’m not putting it off. I’m moving forward one step at a time.

If you strike a thorn or rose,

Keep a-goin’!

If it hails or if it snows,

Keep a-goin’!

‘Tain’t no use to sit and whine

‘Cause the fish ain’t on you line;

Bait your hook an’ keep in tryin’,

Keep a-goin’!

                   -Frank L. Stanton, Keep a-goin’