After I wrote the last post, about needing to find More (more to do, more out of life, etc.), I had a little panic. HOW am I supposed to find More, when there’s nothing I want to do and nothing appeals? When I’m getting older and doors are closing, and I don’t even care because I didn’t want those doors anyway, but it still feels weird? When I can’t seem to take any action anyway, or even keep my desk tidy?—a sick overwhelmed feeling. Then I thought, “Would I feel a little better if I made my desk a little more tidy?,” and started doing that. Within 30 seconds I was tidying a different area of the house (I’d noticed the reusable Christmas bags and realized they needed a home), but no matter: any and all tidying goes to the overall benefit of the mental health bar. (And I did come back around and end up tidying my desk.)
In finding a place for the reusable Christmas bags, I noticed some boxes that were in the storage area but seemed to be mostly empty. Empty boxes are good to have, but these looked at the end of their useful life, and had just a few scraps of easily-dispersed clutter in them: a packet of replacement Christmas light bulbs, a plastic Target bag, two Christmas ornaments with the clearance tags still on them—things like that. In the bottom of one box, there was a string of metallic garland beads—so pretty, but I haven’t put them on the tree in the whole time we’ve lived in this house (7 years), because they get SUPER tangled SUPER easily. And, happily, I recently saw someone post online that you do not have to keep all your holiday decor just because you once thought you’d use it. So I moved the beads, which I’d wrapped around a piece of cardboard with notches cut in the sides to keep them untangled, to the Goodwill bag.
And, under the cardboard panel of beads, the cardboard having created the illusion of being able to see the bottom of the box, I found my tree skirt. The tree skirt that has been missing since we moved. The tree skirt that this year I gave up on finding, so Elizabeth and I went to the post-Christmas clearance sales and bought a new one. I texted Elizabeth “I found the tree skirt.” “Bruh,” she replied.
This feels like an allegory, for what I’m not exactly sure, maybe that getting started will yield unexpected results.
perfect, wonderful story!
Agree!!
we have a 3 yr old neighbor who hangs out with her 7-yr-old brother and his friends nearly exclusively, and as a result is a wild and somewhat feral delight. she was at our house yesterday playing with my kids, but walked calmly into my bedroom at one point where my husband and I were sitting in bed, me reading and him watching his phone. she asked what we were doing, and my husband said he was resting. this little blonde curly-headed child looked my 43 yr old husband straight in the face and said, “BRO. Why??” and I cannot stop laughing about it.
anyway. Elizabeth’s “bruh” response reminded me of that :-D
I read your story and happened to glance at your avatar and wanted to make a full circle themed comment re: skirts but my peri-menopausal, post-holiday brain said no. So I’ll just go with SKIRTS! and leave it at that and also say that I bet your peri-menopausal, post-holiday brain is largely responsible for your less than cheerful outlook of the moment and I’ll also say WORD maybe because your story reminds me that my younger sister had a TINY, pale friend when she was about 6 years old who used to respond to adults’ comments by saying “word” all flat-affect while flashing a peace sign and it cracked me up then and it cracked me up just now remembering:) So thanks for that! January blows.
Ha! That is exactly how my teenage daughter would have responded.
Ooh, you found the skirt, bruh! Now you can alternate between the two. I’m in a condundrum about whether to keep using our pretty tree skirt. Our two cats love to hang out under the tree. I have accepted the cat hair on the skirt, but this year it became the target of cat peeing and also the cardboard cat scratcher in the vicinity of the tree. Why?! Why?! (They also sometimes randomly pee on stuff. Intermittently! So annoying! We have one skittish cat who acts out sometimes and another with Health Issues who may have been the culprit) I’ve saved the laundered tree skirt for next year ‘though I’m sure it’ll be peed on again.
What a beautiful metaphor! The world needs a Swistle book!
That could be her MORE!!
As a fairly new empty nester, every time I think about the idea of MORE, I remind myself of how much I like being in my house and puttering around. And how little of that I have gotten to do all these years because I was puttering for other people, now I can just do it on my own things. That should get me through a lot of years!
That, and I met with a very politically active friend who recommended the League of Women Voters, who need letter writers. I can write the heck out of a letter!
One of the kids is going to get a tree skirt in a gift bag next year, bruh!
Oh what a perfect story.
(Although seriously. Bruh.)