The Details of the Landscape

geralt via Pixabay

Last Thursday, I finished teaching my summer course. Last weekend, I took off my blinders and took a look at my house.

Oh, my.

It's amazing (and a little terrifying) what can happen to a house while life happens.

It's not that it's really awful -- mostly dust bunnies and accumulated I need to see it piles -- just ubiquitous. I mean, I write about this stuff, for heaven's sake. Shouldn't I be better at this?

Well, I am better -- than I was -- but that doesn't keep me from running into the same obstacles as everyone else. From January to July, I worked with the team at my publisher to finish editing a book and put it out into the world, taught three college classes, took a trip to Ireland to visit my daughter who was spending the semester abroad, came back to finish up the classes and launch the book, taught a summer class and finished the novel I'd been working on for several years.

I was busy -- just like everyone else -- but this is not a contest. Quite the opposite. The paragraph above is my busyness and I quite enjoyed all of the things on that list.

Other people have different busyness. To get through the busyness, we put on our blinders and forge ahead. In the process, we miss some of the details in the world outside the blinders, catching only fleeting glimpses of it as we speed past. It's only when we slow down and intentionally take in the scenery that we realize just how much there is to take in.

It's also human nature to adjust to our surroundings. The things around us become familiar and blend into the the landscape. That laundry basket full of clean clothes to put away might bug us for a short time but, if it sits there long enough, it becomes the new norm. Only when it's emptied and the clear space recaptured do we heave a sigh of relief as we take in the loveliness of it not being there.

Arousaland via Pixabay

Over the weekend, I began chipping away at the details of my landscape, deciding what should stay, what should go someplace else and what should just go altogether. It's a process I quite enjoy, actually -- one I look forward to tackling when I have a moment to take off the blinders and take in the view. In fact, I enjoy the process almost as much as I enjoy its reward -- the clear space that is, at once, a sign of the organization I've been seeking and a validation of the work it took to get there.

As you chip away at your landscape, be patient. The busyness of life can be daunting, but most of it consists of things we wouldn't really want to miss. As much as I longed for a weekend to dig into the bits of landscape that caught my attention as I flew by them last spring, I wouldn't have traded in any of the things I did instead for even a month of organizing time.

Now, however, that month is here. If you need me, I'll be assessing -- and sorting through -- the piles.