Suddenly simpler

Sometimes my to-do list is so long, it makes me incredibly anxious. Even worse than the long to-do lists is the mess at my desk.

Since November, even before I had a brain aneurysm, my desk has been covered with growing piles of paper: magazines, memorabilia, bills, receipts, cards, and random sheets of information. It corresponds to the miles-long to-do lists.

Finding the energy to clean up this mess has escaped me during this whole long recovery period. Yet the mess was sapping my energy.

I knew I couldn’t make any progress on my book or my art until I got rid of the mental and physical crap.

Artistic play isn’t like child’s play, which goes about happily in a pile of mud. I can’t create in the midst of clutter.

I distributed my to-do list over a three-week period so that each day just has a few tasks.

I got out empty file folders for the piles on the desk, and tuck-tuck-tucked all that paper away.

In my art space, I gathered together all my fused glass design materials, which had been scattered here, upstairs, and at the condo. Finally, everything in one place.

Then, at last, I could work on fused glass pieces for two hours. Here’s one:

I thought, “There must be something planetary going on.” The ice broke, there was movement. Everything was suddenly simpler.

So I checked my horoscope. The one from 0800-horoscope.com said,

You are in the mood for cooperation, order, cleanliness and streamlining your life and ‘living space’ right now. You want not only clean but ‘efficient’ working smoothly and seamlessly from one ‘routine to another’ … cutting down on the time and effort you must invest.

And horoscope.com said,

Let the genius within you come out and play, Cancer. You may feel like some sort of inventor who has wild ideas that could help to revolutionize the future. Bring these ideas into the open and see what kind of response you get from the people around you.

Today’s penny is a 2015, because I cleaned up the mess that was left from that year.