Martin Luther King, Jr as a young boy in Atlanta, GA
Everybody has to start out someplace.
Here’s to all the hot meals, the bedtime stories, the songs and the love that went into helping this little boy become one of our country’s greatest leaders.
May our kids continue to advance the dream.
Here it is, less than 24 hours later. A cleaner desk.
I have always been a firm believer in having a wedding for one main reason. It is a time when you stand up, in front of a bunch of people who mean something to you, and promise that you are going to work really hard to make this relationship work. And you enlist their help in ensuring that the promise becomes a reality. There is something about stating this type of business in public that makes it all the more vivid, and makes one all the more motivated to keep up one’s end of the bargain, so to speak.
Same thing seems to go for taking a photo of the messy-ass left side of my desk yesterday. Because if I hadn’t posted that, I never would have spent 45 minutes this morning, filing, discarding, sorting and arranging all of those papers. I even found a couple of flash drives that I forgot I owned.
In a perfect world, I might upgrade to some prettier folders, though I like the fact that my overflowing to-do file has the word LIMBO written on it in huge bold letters.
Mind you Tiny steps parts 1 and 1.5 were completed and posted on this blog about a year ago, but I am clearly a person who likes to take her time with things.
I am now going to post this, and then go happily off to the shredder with a pile of paper which I will reduce to tiny little strips (fun!)
I would like to say that I am person who is entirely motivated by an unselfish desire to transform the world into a better place, to improve the lives of others thus covering their faces with smiles, to give without even the slightest consideration of reward.
But that is not entirely true.
I will, I admit, walk a bit faster when there is a carrot tied to the end of the stick in front of me. At least I can say I am honest about that. And while there are certainly times when that carrot takes the form of a smile, there are other times when it looks more like a new pair of pants from Maria Cornejo.
So I am currently in the process of figuring out what the carrots are for my particular 2014 resolutions. Or goals, lets just say goals. It feels less intimidating, somehow.
It just feels better when you look down and see something beautiful keeping the door open. Trust me. Photo courtesy of Twine.
I am looking to take care of unfinished business, which in my language means clearing out the piles, for it is in the form of mountains of stuff that my unfinished business takes shape. Like when I recycle all of those junky plastic doorstops I keep around, I get to replace them with 2 of these nice ones (because I only ever need to prop open 2 doors anyway.)
Or when I organized the little shelf in our bathroom… (see before and after pictures below)
Before is on the left, a hodgepodge of bath related items, tossed into the shelves as though the enemy were coming and we had to escape quickly. On the right, just a quick moment to straighten and organize, the kid stuff is no longer overwhelming when condensed onto one shelf, and the entire top level is now devoted to lovely smelling things, which tend to look really nice and include the delicious big sur cabin spray. Oh and the little wikistick snake that has become part of the family.
This completed task justified the purchase of the otherworldly cabin spray by Juniper Ridge that makes me feel like I’ve stepped out of the shower onto a secluded forest trail in Big Sur. I’ll take the mountain in the middle of Brooklyn any day.
This style of motivation works for me, and at this point, I stand firmly in the by-any-means-necessary camp when it comes to clearing out my situation. There is no harm in rewarding oneself for a job well done.
Now you may have noticed that I have made no mention of the-catastrophe-that-was-once-my-office, because I’ve been putting it off.
Natch.
But today is the first day of a bright new future. Today I begin tackling one corner of my desk, because I figure I’ll start with a clean work area, and then I can begin to face the music of the stacks of boxes, one by one. If there are any of you out there embarking on a similar project and you want to swap stories, or give me some tips, please oh please be in touch. I can use all the help (and company!) I can get.
Fingers crossed that tomorrow I will be able to show you a much more together version of this little area.
This is a beautiful video that makes me want to quit everything and just do collaborative art projects forever.
Which probably isn’t going to happen.
But maybe I can work towards increasing those types of projects in my life from their current number of zero (unless you count the Sketchbook Project I’ve been helping my daughter with) to say, one or two.
A girl can dream.
Because we’ve got to start self improving someplace, and it may as well involve food, since we’re all already eating. Can’t say the same for going to the gym, but I digress…
This would be the exact opposite of the kind of food I am planning on surrounding myself (and my family) with in 2014. Not that I don’t like a burger, but…
If you want to make killer, nutritious, brain enhancing smoothies with little apparent effort, just keep some of these foods on your shelves at all times.
Oh and to get the ball rolling, here’s a recipe for a cleansing green (but still sweet) smoothie.
Ramen is the grandma’s-chicken-soup of today. Here’s a list of great NYC spots where you can indulge in a little warm deliciousness this winter.
And while we’re on the topic of healthy-and-delicious soup, what about this delicious looking parmesan broth with kale and white beans?
So I’ve pointed you in the direction of 2 different recipes. How do you know they’re going to succeed? Dinner A Love Story has the answer.
Everybody’s talking about the benefits of fermentation, while I just nod my head and look vaguely around thinking of sauerkraut. Then I read this piece on NPR and it all became clear.
Don’t forget that our skin actually ingests things more directly than our mouths do, so soaps, lotions, etc are also really important to consider. Especially for our kids. This post on Apartment Therapy has surprisingly informative and helpful comments with lot of great product suggestions.
Here it is. 2014. All sunny blue skies and puffy white clouds.
Yes people, it’s January resolution time. I’ve suggested resolutions, given links, tried to inspire at least one of you to go out and end poverty in the US, etc etc. All in a desperate attempt to avoid actually making my own resolutions and committing them to… screen… or whatever phrase we’re supposed to use now that paper has fallen so far out of favor.
Last year I made two resolutions and one of them was a complete and total failure.
My first one is coming along nicely. The one about being more financially responsible. Keeping track of what I spend, putting aside funds for future use (savings? could that be savings?) etc etc. Yay me. Still have a ways to go, but I’m in better shape now that I imagined I would ever be last year, so there.
My other resolution, the one I wrote about somewhat at length in this here blog, has been such a fiasco that I hardly know where to begin. Sure there have been extenuating circumstances when it comes to carving order out of the overflowing chaos that is my office. But I am still sitting here, trying to work amidst a pile of stuff, probably 75% of which I do not need (like, do I need to keep the users manual for the computer I bought in 1995?)
And yet, in 12 months, I have only managed to clear off one lousy shelf. One. Out of 21 shelves (yep, I just counted them) all bulging, stuffed to the hilt, sagging under the weight of excess and crying out in desperation. Not to mention the piles of stuff on the floor.
After the ceiling was repaired [for those of you who are new, my office ceiling collapsed this past fall, covering all of my belongings with rubble and plaster dust] I swore I would not just unpack the boxes and put everything back. NO. I am better than that. I was going to carefully go through everything, culling all unnecessary items and emerging with a newer leaner workspace.
Needless to say, the pile of boxes remains. And now, when I need anything, I have to hunt through the boxes, cursing my own name every time. Not a good situation, by any count. Plus I’ve tossed all sorts of things onto the shelves willy nilly when I’ve needed to clean up for the arrival of guests or other such horrifying situations. At least before, I knew where everything was. Now, who knows?
And so, for 2014, I have decided to keep it really simple. This is going to be the year that I take care of unfinished business (which is actually clearing clutter, just by another name) The office is item number one on my list and SO HELP ME GOD I am going to deal with it. There are all sorts of other things, like unread e mails and half finished craft projects, a barely touched Instagram account, a pile of clothes that need mending… all of which stand in the way of the clearer life I am planning to be living by the end of this year.
They say that if you continue to cross these types of tasks off of your to-do list, you will open up all sorts of room for new and exciting things to happen.
Hey, even if I just get this office situation taken care of, I’ll be beyond happy.
Wish me luck.
50 years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty. We clearly have a long way to go- but this war is in no way unwinable.
Watch this excerpt from LBJ’s State of the union speech, get inspired, and do something. Think of how much weight can be lifted if 200 million hands are shouldering the burden…
Photo by Thomas Zakowski
But before we here in NYC start complaining (which we all do very well, by the way) perhaps we should check out Tom Gill and Thomas Zakowski’s photographs of frozen lighthouses on Lake Michigan.
Makes 6 degrees feel downright balmy.
OK you people buck up. It’s the beginning of January. Time to make some resolutions. What? Haven’t figured out how you’re going to transform yourself into the perfect version of you yet? Maybe these links will help point you in the right direction…
Getting rid of all screen media for your kids might be too much to ask for. But how about just resolving to actually watch the movies with the little people? Hello Dolly is a current family favorite, though my daughter has absolutely forbidden me to sing any of the songs afterwards, which is nearly impossible.
Looking to become more efficient in 2014? Tech columnist David Pogue shares 10 tricks to save all sorts of time and energy when interfacing with your best friend oh-no-wait your computer/the internet. I’ve already put most of them into practice.
I’m sure we also all want to clean out the unwanted toxins in our bodies, right? Who wants those around? Maybe you’re really ready to go for it with a cleanse.
And while we’re on the topic of cleaning out, for my fellow hoarders, there is Krrb.com. Believe it or not, there are tons of people in your neighborhood who actually want your junk.
I’m sure you are all also going to start drinking enough water. They say we need at least 64 oz a day. Never fear!! There’s an app to help with that, too! (Phew…)
Resolving to improve your memory? Evidently a little music might be all you need.
And now that we’ve come to the end of this post, it turns out that, according to Time Magazine, New Years resolutions are bad for you.
We are all off the hook.
and hoping that maybe, by being close to their bravery (and touch of insanity) my 2014 will be full of happiness and light.
This is a horribly shot video (sorry!) taken by me as I stood on the beach, mouth agape, with my family and some friends, bundled up in down jackets, long underwear and boots, while these incredible individuals stripped down to their bathing suits and jumped into the Atlantic Ocean. Some of them were kids.
It was kind of unbelievable. And the look of triumph (and shock, too, but mostly triumph) on their faces when they came out of the water was inspirational.
May we all have cause to wear similar expressions of triumph over the course of the next twelve months.
Happy New Year Everybody!
