ww: space to move

This is from the past few days, folks.

It doesn't include books I already dropped off at the Little Free Library, either.  And you can't see the second stack, behind this one, about half as high.

I've been reading books I started and didn't finish.  Or bought and intended to read, and didn't.  Or bought for some inexplicable reason (probably a recommendation from someone) and didn't click with.

In addition, there are four more stacks in different categories on my dining room table (I know, I know...temporary locations, blah blah blah, but it's working for me), and probably two full shelves with my rocks and rattles (mostly nonfiction spirit-y stuffs), and a shelf full of nature stuffs for the Kamana program I've been working on for two years now.  (Master Naturalist program.  It's pretty in-depth and resource-heavy.)

My shelves feel like they can breathe.  I feel like I can breathe.

It's not happening overnight, because I'm insisting on reading things I think are valuable to me.  And since I bought these books, most of them are things that I think are valuable to me.  Go figure. :)

I've also started in on the art supplies and clothes and extraneous stuff that just accumulates with the carnival of living, and I feel like I'm making decent progress, there, too.  Slow.  But decent.  I haven't given up to binge-watch Netflix and stuff my face with pie, so I'm calling that a win.

(Sidenote:  how did I end up with three dozen pink-ish nail polishes?  Is there a Polish Fairy I don't know about?)

As things start to go, I'm finding something important, too.

Stuff is energy.  

It sounds weird, but it's true.

Your stuff has energy.  Energy you put into it, either from your time, your money, or your desire to use/enjoy it.

And when you start shifting that energy around, you get some of it back.  Especially if you use it/pass it on rather than just trying to "organize" it.  

(I put that in quotes because if you're anything like me, "organizing" is just a game of Crap Tetris, where you're not really making it accessible or anything...you're just shoving it more efficiently into a non-accessible space, so getting it out is even more impossible without causing an avalanche.  Perhaps Crap Jenga is more apt.)

I knew, from past experiences, that if I have less, I do more.

I think I just understand now why that is:  I'm reclaiming energy, focus, and attention from the places I put it to store it for a while. 

Moving forward, I just want to be more judicious in my use of Energy Tupperware, I think.

Interestingly enough, Reading Week starts tomorrow.

I love it when one activity dovetails this nicely into the next.  Gives my week some Flow.

This week, I'm continuing the shovel-off.  It's shelf-clearing week.

That means I'm going for volume again this week instead of a particular theme, so to speak.  As per usual, I'll post a list of what got read at the end, and I might be a little quiet while I've got my nose to the papery grindstone.  

But I'll be reading.

And freeing up more space and time and energy in the process.