ebbs and flows

I have a tendency to use my bedroom floor as a filing system. I may not have inherited my looks from my mother but I certainly got her habit of filing things in piles! The sort that make perfect sense to the one who creates them, but look like a chaotic mess to anyone else...

After several weeks of there just being a narrow path of clear carpet from the bed to the door there was, for a short while, an expanse of green carpet visible. Quite disconcerting really, I kept looking round wondering what it was I'd forgotten about. That's the problem with tidying up, things get put away and then oh so easily forgotten.

A bag of stuff has gone to the op shop, and the bag of stuff heading to kindergarten has finally been delivered (a major achievement - some of that stuff had been waiting over a year!). But I still have several piles waiting to be dealt with, some which have achieved a greater degree of permanence than others - if I put the Worship Group reading folders out of sight I totally forget I'm the one who has to keep them up to date and circulating, so they stay leaning against the bookshelves ready to receive anything that comes in straight away.

There is a growing pile of stuff that I really have to remember to take with me to Yearly Meeting this week which is rapidly filling up all the empty carpet available, and there's a pile of correspondence waiting to be dealt with. Most of that has been sitting there far longer than I like to admit.

However the 'to be sorted/filed' has mostly been dealt with and that was what had made most of the difference. Well that and tidying up various sewing projects and putting the material no longer needed back in the cupboard!

There is a definite tidal feel to it all, especially as some piles grow and diminish but never quite go away. And after I've been away it certainly looks like a tsunami or tropical cyclone has passed through when I've got back!

I was referring to some of the piles as my 'guilt piles' - they sit there staring me in the face in the hope that eventually I'll get around to dealing with them. But usually all they achieve is making me feel guilty for not having done so. It was realising that waking up every morning to the sight of them was getting me down that prompted the latest blitz on them, and I did indeed feel a lot better about it all once I'd done so. I've made some progress with the letter writing too, well okay I've put stamps and addresses on envelopes and postcards... one small step at a time!

Someone else will be sleeping in my room whilst I'm away at Yearly Meeting so there is further incentive to deal with a few other things that are waiting to be dealt with. So I guess I'd better stop procrastinating and start packing my rucksack so I can see what of the remaining piles can be dealt with before I go... it is all very well knowing that what love requires of you may not be great busyness, but a certain amount of tidyness seldom goes amiss!