It’s been a stressful holiday season for me internet. The shopping/wrapping/shipping cycle was
finished about half an hour before the first Christmas Eve party. In between all the usual time demands, my
fiancée and I looked for a new apartment, my sister visited with her kids, both
of my parents got the flu (not at the same time) and I forfeited a ton of sleep
and time to myself.
One of the odd
consequences of that last thing? The
dishes piled up a couple of times in my sink last week. This is really unusual for a few
reasons. One, my kitchen is super tiny,
so other than coffee and cereal, I rarely cook or eat at home. Second, I usually wash my dishes the minute
I’m through with them. It takes just a
couple of minutes to wash one bowl, cup, and spoon and I like my kitchen a
certain way. But running to different
stores, the post office, and a couple of apartment buildings in the same day,
makes certain chores take a back seat.
So twice this
week I had twenty minutes of washing up to do, and while I was doing it, I
realized I missed it. I used to live in
a giant Victorian house in Brighton with four other people, all on different schedules, all less
likely to do dishes than me. So to make
morning coffee (or to just be able to find the space to clean the coffee pot) I
routinely did thirty minutes of other people’s washing up every morning. It bothered me only occasionally (finding a
prized glass crushed under the melee of dishes that could have been stacked and
stabilized with a moment’s thought will do that) but it was a great mental
cleanser. Every morning I would be up
before everyone else, and spend half an hour mining order out of their
chaos. And every morning I would feel a
small calm glow of accomplishment from it.
I hadn’t had that buzz or the quiet it stemmed from, in a long time,
maybe close to a year.
So I guess
that tiny hidden bit of joy is something I’d like to relate and possibly pass
on to you, oh three readers of this blog.
Now that the holiday season is finally waning, ask yourself what fun
productive thing you haven’t done in a while.
The moment obligation doesn’t intrude, go do it. Let me know if you find the same neglected
joy I found. Call that joy my gift to
you. Merry Dishmas, internet, and have a
happier New Year.
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As
always, I welcome comments to this post or others on this blog. You can comment here. If you enjoy tweeting, I’m @TheSagest there, or if you’re old
fashioned, you can mail me at TheSagest77@gmail.com.
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For
those of you paying attention (all one of you): no I didn’t work on the book
this month. It’s not that I didn’t have
any time at all, although it feels that way.
I’m just prioritizing family, future living conditions, and not
collapsing over what is essentially a vanity project. It’s probably the right thing to do.
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This
post was mulled over the last week, and it was quicker to compose than the
others here so far. I did use my Neil Young
station on Pandora to make the writing easier.
