unravelled

Yellow bias tape reclaimed from my late grandma’s sewing stash.

Week 2 (or Week 3 if you count the Bonus Week) of life coaching. I love the program. The principal assignment of the course is to set an intention for what I want to gain from the seven weeks of coaching. I could have effortlessly written down 45 intentions in a single sitting – and I almost did. There is plenty I wish to transform, change and begin anew.

As I stared at my lengthy list of brainstormed intentions, one item stood out as the key to unlocking the clarity I’ve been struggling so damn hard to find in the last three years:

Release the clutter.

I’m betting that those who know me offline are rolling their eyes and muttering, “Well yeah. Dude! What’s taking you so FREAKIN‘ long?”

I dunno. It’s complicated. And the reasons don’t particularly matter anymore.

So I set my intention to let go of the physical, mental and emotional clutter weighing me down.

What does setting this intention mean exactly? Well, for now it means that I show up every day for a couple of hours (minimum) to let go of clutter. Starting with the obvious. If you’ve followed previous incarnations of this blog, you may have already guessed what I’m alluding to.

Yep, the Scary Basement. (Which evolved into the Not As Scary Basement after I made a huge dent in the cleanup prior to our Hawai’i vacation in 2009.) Once again I’m chipping away at the floor-to-ceiling stacks o’ stuff  living languishing in our basement since 2002.  These days it’s more accurate to dub the space as the Increasingly Organized Basement. With the strength of my intention behind me, I’m now on a mission to attain a Triumphantly Clean and Functional Basement by the end of the summer.

Process, progress. Yesterday I cleaned my subterranean art space and took an informal inventory of supplies. Not so bad. Invigorating even. Today I delved into my Montessori course notes and teaching materials, realizing with a heavy heart that it was time to find a new, loving home for all the cute and pretty things I rediscovered in the boxes. Unravelled by fond memories of children and imaginative hours spent dreaming up and creating activities, it was difficult to let go at first, albeit a huge relief when the decision was finally made.

Confronting clutter isn’t the sexiest summer activity on the block, but I trust my intention will lead me to a better place. At the very least that place will be clutter-free, right?