Settling Things...One Corner at a Time

It is Wednesday, right??

I have four days after today to get myself organized and get back to work for a full-time schedule of music therapy groups, attempts to get individuals going, and shepherding two interns through the process of becoming their own type of therapist.

Yesterday was a total loss as far as doing anything productive for how I live my life in my home. I woke up feeling blue and restless. Nothing appealed to me at all, so I headed out to my local Walmart for a shopping spree. I had to be around people - not so much to interact, but just to be around others. I wore my mask, practiced appropriate social distancing, and all that, and I left spending just under $100. It took me about 45 minutes to make the rounds of the store, and I did get SOME things that I need - for example, some new storage containers for my stuff at work - the old ones are disintegrating - and, of course, several things that I really didn't need - four new fiction books to devour in the next week or so. I also loaded up on the sugary stuff - not the best choices, but I'm justifying it because I am technically "on break." I also did a bunch of adulting things - requested my advance ballot (yep, I take advantage of mail-in ballots ALL THE TIME), signed up for insurance, and organized all the pieces that need to be laminated into laminating sheets. I made a small book out of some scrap cardboard, and finished up another book by stitching in the signatures. I also watched a webinar (I am a REALLY bad attendee) and hosted another webinar for music therapy interns. It wasn't a bad day or a lazy day, but I did not do anything with cleaning or clearing things out. I did more stuff on the side of enjoyment and self-care.

Today, however, is a different story. I am feeling the end of the break coming up quickly, and I feel like I need to be making some sort of progress on my living environment. I can't let the vacuum roam at the moment because I have too many things on the floor. My goal is to get things picked up enough that Huey (my vacuum) can roam on his path the way he needs to do on a daily basis. To do this, I need to clear off enough of my shelving to be able to put things from the floor onto the shelves.

Easy enough to do, right??

Well, let's just say that I am the type of person who gets overwhelmed when looking around at all the stuff that I have, and I tend to try to avoid rather than get things done. To combat this particular trait of mine, I am focusing on one corner of my home at a time. I started with the computer desk. (The cat chose. She doesn't like it when she cannot get up on the desk to interfere with what I am doing at any given time.) The desk has now been uncovered. Things to be filed are waiting to be filed. Things that needed to be addressed are now addressed and thrown out. I can see the top of my desk again, and that is good.

The next step is to sort through the next corner. I'm thinking that the best place to focus my attention is in the kitchen. I have done some grocery shopping lately, so I have canned goods to put away. I will also pick up the bags to take into work on Monday. After that, I'm not sure which corner I will tackle.

As a music therapist, I feel that my clinic area is pretty organized and neat. My office is not so much. I am working on that, but I have never been able to contain my life into small neat boxes (that's my dream, though! I fantasize about having lots of drawers and containers that fit together into a coherent whole!). For now, though, I have to be content with the concept that I am doing what I can do and leave it at that.

One corner at a time. Start with something that is doable and then move to the next doable thing.

I was watching Frozen II a couple of days ago because I've been on a movie kick lately, and it was on top of the stack of movies that I needed to put away on my shelving. Why not watch it, right?? So, I was watching it, opting for the singalong version (of course!), and singing along to the music when The Next Right Thing came on. That song makes me cry every time because I think it does such a good job of illustrating what I have to do sometimes - just the next right thing. As I have mentioned before in this blog, I have Season Affective Disorder during the summer, and I tend to find myself in a depressed mode. When I am in a depressed mode, I find it hard to take care of my environment, so the theme of the song - just do the next right thing - is a mantra of sorts. I now have a song to go with it - BONUS!!

This summer has been less depressing than other summers, and I am now wondering if it has something to do with being so isolated in my home over the past four months. I haven't felt the way I usually do - extremely tired, hard to move around, and all that. It is interesting to me that this summer has been a good summer as far as my own mental outlook is concerned. Maybe uncertainty is good for me.

Time to move into the next corner of my life and do the next right thing.