Magazines, Catalogues, and Clutter

I've been applauding myself lately for throwing things out. I used to keep every catalogue that came to our mailbox. Fashion catalogues. Travel catalogues. Vitamin catalogues. I'd wish through the pages. When I found something that I really wanted, I would angle-fold the page so the corner stuck out and I could get back there to "ooh and awe" some more. Rarely would I buy from the catalogue. So this display of "ooh and awe" wonder is quite small compared to what I used to have. I'm learning to thrown things away.

The inbox of my email is too full -- it's cluttered. I wonder if anyone else relates to this. I answer emails, but then I don't delete them 'fraid I'll need one sometime in the future so I don't delete. Today I had about six dozen student emails to answer. With great reserve and almost panic, I deleted each email after I replied. I also have more than one email account. I have one for friends. I have one for students. I have for campus business. I even have one just for myself--so I can store more clutter. I wonder if anyone else does that.

I have too many books too. Occasionally I get rid of one or two. I should bundle them in boxes and give them to the Friends of the Library store. Maybe I should invited all my friends over (like I mentioned in yesterday's blip) and have each one take three books home with them. I have some really good books--literature, poetry, non-fiction, how-to, humor, and a little of everything else found in the local Barnes and Noble.

I even save birthday cards and Christmas cards for entirely too long. What's wrong with me? As a re-entry college student, the book Housekeeping by Marilynn Robinson was assigned in an Analysis of Prose Fiction class. It took me 15 minutes, but I just found it on the bookshelf in our home library room. It's an interesting book (made into a motion picture) filled with lots of clutter. Reading that novel helped me desire to throw away some of my clutter. But letting go is difficult. Is letting go a sign of change and that means I don't like change? Gosh, I'm not sure.

This morning here on Blip I saw something that made me feel wonderfully normal. I loved it, but it also made me realize that I must begin to give away, get rid of, and throw away the clutter in my life. I enjoyed Ville Sohn's blip so much that I have determined to embrace my clutter and to embark upon a journey of letting go of the things I really don't need and God willing to know which things those are. Hopefully a month from now, I won't have enough catalogues to take a photo for my blip of the day.

Signing off from Southern California where everything is cluttered with houses, cars, people, restaurants, fast-food, Starbucks, and places to shop.

Rosie, aka Carol