Stuff

I think we all have a love/hate relationship with stuff.  Our Laissez Faire, "whoever dies with the most stuff wins", "greed is good", inner Ivan Boeski's drive us to accumulate even though our Real Simple, "you can't take it with you", "less is more", inner Amish tells us to purge.  I am famous (or maybe infamous...) for yelling at the TV while watching my favorite HGTV and Hoarding shows "you don't need more storage!  You need less CRAP!"  So when I found myself in the storage aisle in WalMart looking for additional plastic storage tubs to put stuff in our basement, I had to take a serious look in the mirror and remind myself that maybe I don't need additional places to put my stuff, I need less stuff.  Let the purging begin!

How do I find myself with 6 extra bed pillows?  And more importantly, how did I forget I had them?  I found the mysteriously multiplying pillows in the tubs in the basement when I decided to see if I could free up some space in the bins I already had rather than buying new ones.  How many extra pillows does one household need?  Apparently not 6.  And viola, an empty bin was created.  But the bed-stuff safari had begun and I couldn't stop there.  I pulled out a binkie for a twin bed.  I haven't had a twin bed since college.  Sheets for a double bed.  I haven't had a double bed since before I was married...IN 1993!  Miscellaneous pillow cases were also in there, but I'll give myself those since I had all the pillows which, of course, needed cases.  So in one afternoon I created storage, saved money, and made a huge pile to go to charity.  Well played if I do say so myself.

But this stuff obsession we all have, while lessened during the ongoing economic downturn, still drives us all to forget what's important.  Every purchase and/or acquisition is a choice.  An item or expenditure chosen to be more important than something else.  And for what?  What does all the stuff get us except more stuff and less space in our minds, closets and basements?  What does it add to our lives?  It's probably easier to ask "what does it take away from our lives?"  It takes away the need to deal with an issue that is bugging us.  It takes away the ease of a simple clutter free life.  It takes away the focus we could be making on things that matter more.  And it requires dusting.  And seriously, who wants to dust?

I guess my point here is that life isn't about stuff.  Where to put it and how to clean it.  Life is about the little things that happen around us every day.  Nothing you can accumulate takes the place of the joy in seeing a beautiful sunset.  Or cheering on the accomplishment of another.  Or smiling at a stranger and seeing them smile back.  WalMart doesn't sell that stuff.  Being a valuable and happy human being comes from within, not from the points on your credit card.  Or from the number of bed pillows you accumulate.

Spring has sprung...

Spring is here in all it's glory.  The Easter bunny has come and gone leaving foil wrapped chocolate happiness in his wake.  Flowers are blooming, the grass is green, people are working in their yards and there is a sense of excitement and renewal in the air.  I love the spring.

I thought I might feel different about spring this year given we had no winter to speak of.  We haven't had our heat turned on in months now (US natural gas surplus?  You're welcome...).  But it must just be a calendar driven thing.  The feeling that everything is new again comes each year whether we expect it or not.  Or maybe it has something to do with the sound of lawn mowers and weed whackers in the neighborhood.  Renewal must be mowed...

I'm feeling ready to make a mad dash into spring.  I've gotten caught up since 2012 started on things I've let slide over the past couple of years, and am having relatively good results in my efforts to make changes in my life based on what Cushing's has taught me.  I'm working at easing up on myself.  Seeing the good in every day and not falling back into life patterns that do not include appreciating the things I have.  Drama doesn't interest me the way it used to.  I was never into reality shows, but they are even more ridiculous to me than they were before...and I didn't think that was possible.  Life is too short for drama.  It doesn't matter.  It doesn't bring anything to any one's life and on no one's deathbed will they utter the words "I wish I'd had more drama".  Our goal should be to make each day the best day ever and to change the things that keep that from happening.

We all have the choice of how to react to things.  We have the choice of what to say and how to feel.  Yes, how to feel.  You do not have to accept the initial response you have.  We can talk ourselves down and bring reason in.  It may take a while, but it's possible.  I've had to do it alot over the past couple of years, and it's making it easier to deal with things now.  It's hard to get my knickers in a knot over a line at the post office when I've had to be OK with a medical condition I never expected and that has no foreseeable end.  Perhaps it's what I needed to adjust my type A tendencies.  The Universe is funny that way.

So go forth and adjust your thinking in the name of Spring.  Contemplate life while mowing the grass.  Snip some flowers to enjoy inside instead of just walking by them every day.  Smile for no reason.  And live life as drama free as possible.  Do it for me!