still organising. or not.

                    

the thing about choices and routines

Sometimes I feel that this is all one ever does in a life. Work; cook; clean; shop; and organise it all. Which is not very rewarding. But, we do need a background to our life. Well, I do. Some sort of background rhythm which makes life flow easier. Even though it's a bit boring doing this.

I've found that I just don't make so many bad daily choices when I have some systems in place, and don't have to make so many little decisions. So part of it is just being practical. 

I don't want to waste my life on little decisions. I want my life to mean more than that. And this is another reason why I so believe in having little routines. So that I have more choices energy for making the important decisions. 

I always used to just get up and do everything first thing in the morning. But now I've learnt to do some things in the evening to prepare for the next day, just to reduce stress. I have always been a person who thrives on routine. From many years of teaching yoga, I learnt how our hormones love routine, and that a healthy hormonal system equals a happier body and mind. Our circadian rhythms love regularity, too. We just thrive better with some Order in our life.

So, I'm currently having a ponder and experimenting with and about little routines To Make Life Nicer. And why not? Theoretically, I now have the time for this. The irony is that I seem to have a wee problem in that I am always filling in nearly all of my time with Things To Do, so that "me" things fall by the wayside. A personality quirk. 

spring woes

I have spent two weeks exhausted and with weeping, sore eyes, bad vision, sniffling nose, and a sore head. All of my Best Laid Plans Of Mice and Men, going awry. I felt so unwell. Just when I was about to go to a doctor, worried that I could be mysteriously seriously ill, and I was also coming down with a severe case of hypochondria, a friend reminded me that I get hay-fever (embarrassment to have forgotten!)

I have been all over the place with hay fever; it is incredibly debilitating. In class I just keep hoping that I am not asked any questions as I also have brain fog with this hay fever.  Mine is from privet mostly but for sure it's other pollens, too. 

I love books

Yes, I do. I'll often buy them at an Op shop or charity book sale for just one dollar each, have a read, then return them. I love vintage and retro books. It's just a little pleasure, and fits in with my love of not wasting resources. But, it does mean that every month or so, I have to be quite ruthless and have a clear out of them. When I get really anal, I have them all grouped together in subjects in my bookcases. 

In my early years, money was so tight, but Mum managed to get us the occasional comic. Shared among five little girls. Every year I would win a book prize at school, and later at church. Usually The Brothers Grimm, those fantastically somewhat macabre children's books. They left me with some weird ideas about life, I can tell you! And a permanent desire for red shoes (you have to have read the stories to understand). Decades later, I discovered that Mum had kept all of those books that I had won, and a young niece owned them. 

We also had a dictionary. At least two of us read it avidly, simply because there wasn't much else to read. I leave out my Maori workbooks by Scotty Morrison to browse, in the same way.

My first two children, I always took them to the library. It was free (yay) and I always wanted them to have that same love of reading. My eldest daughter, when she was young, most of the children's movies that I took her to, left her sad and disappointed, as they were never as good as the books that they came from. 

culling and cherishing

These are somethings that I've also been doing for most of this year. Removing myself from situations where I am uneasy, or not feeling good. It has been a long process. Now I am more in prevention mode. Recognising my own patterns, being aware of how things and people affect me. It has taken a long time to come to this, as I am really soft hearted. And I prefer to be this way. But I also prefer to be happy, so it has been a bit necessary to be a bit tougher with myself. And it has left me with more time to cherish. And I feel that this area of life, the culling and cherishing, is so important. I definitely feel that it fits in with organising one's life. In a most important way.