The Flipper or Why Some Stubborn People Have to Be Tossed Off of Roofs In Order to Change Their Lives

In a moment of brazen puffery, I posted the link to this blog on the Facebook page of a group I have been working with called "40 bags in 40 days".  Yes, that means my housekeeping skills are not my strongest skillset.  Ahem.  But anyways, in the midst of all the decluttering, I found myself musing a lot about why it was that I had held onto some items or even acquired them in the first place.  And I realized that during my marriage, when I was not able to get the love I needed from my husband, I tried to fill that hole with stuff.  Just.....stuff.  At the time, money was not an issue.  I also overate, again, an attempt to fill that inner chasm.  I can be pretty stubborn about sticking to a course though, and it literally took a serious accident--in my case a fall off of a roof--to get me to seriously reassess my life and priorities.  That was almost 8 years ago (the accident) and I am still reassessing and redefining (I never said I was speedy!) So.  For posterity, here is the post I shared in 40 bags.....

Oooooookaaaayyyy so a while back there was a thread about weirdness we discovered whilst decluttering. Almost 8 years ago, I fell off a roof, got my leg tangled in the ladder and face planted on concrete. Broke out my front teeth. This was a major turning point for me--lost 150 pounds, began counseling that ultimately led to discovering my husband of 20 years was gay, divorce, and returning to the workforce, getting laid off twice....it's been a helluva decade. I just found the temporary teeth (a 'flipper' that held place while my bones healed enough to do the implants (took over two years) --- I give you The Flipper. It was in my underwear drawer next to my passport (because where else would you keep outdated orthodontia...) Unless somebody out there has a compelling reason...I believe this is outta here!

2014--Fewer Words, More Actions

Oh hey look--it's New Year's Day and time for resolutions. I once read an interview with Sting where he said that he was amazed his wife had stayed with him as long as she had because he tended to "live inside his head" the majority of the time.  That rang so true to me--I have this whole life going on in my head that has nothing to do with reality, but I would really like for it to become reality.  I'm actually not a big one on annual resolutions....it seems like a setup for failure--large outsize goals and then crashing failure when it doesn't happen.  I think perhaps I am more of a daily resolve kind of gal.  In that spirit, though, rather than set a specific goal, what I would like to do is make smaller changes, day by day, to ingrain new habits and make permanent life changes.  Hopefully this will work better for me than Grand, Overarching Goals.  So, here we go.  This year, I will do or have:

• less planning, more doing
• less panic, more prayer
• less brinksmanship, more small consistencies
• less fear, more faith
• less bravado, more resolve
• less ass, more muscle
• less fake it, more make it
• less stuff. Just. Less. Stuff.

Don't just dream big--do big. Or do small until it becomes big.  Just do.