“The Dog” Journal
Welcome to the Dog Journal, a blog where I periodically share my best finds for taming those puppies that gnaw at your planner.
Could be a quick time management tip, a smell-the-flowers moment, a comment overheard on the elevator. Whatever the inspiration, I hope you’ll blog right along with me by commenting and sharing your tips and stories for taming an overbooked life.
Crossbody: A Start on Civility
Sometimes it seems like we’re so divided that there’s nothing left to talk safely about. While others are debating immigration, abortion and the proper education of children, I have set out to spark discussion on a topic we can all weigh in on: what is the best Crossbody Bag?
Granted, it’s not a world-changing topic. But hey. You have to start somewhere, and my Facebook post asking for Crossbody advice (Anyone have any suggestions for smallish bags that will still hold a pair of sunglasses?) garnered almost as much traffic as my photo of the lunar moth that landed on doorframe last summer
Granted, not all agreed. But the exchange was civil as friends weighed in with their faves: Herschel Heritage! Baggalini! Travelon! The Jursccu! How refreshing!
And in case you’re curious, I finally settled on a Baggallini Calais My too-small discards will soon reside at a thrift shop, awaiting new owners. Because one size does not fit all.
Rightsizing Comeuppance
I hate to admit it after beating the rightsizing drum. But the most essential wardrobe item on my recent trip to Santa Fe, NM, was a bright salmon microfiber shirt I’d tried to push on my friend Nancy a few months before in the name of rightsizing.
“It will look GREAT on you,” I insisted, “and I will never wear it again.” It had been hanging in my closet unworn since a trip to Costa Rica in 2017, and seemed to check all the boxes for repurposing. I hadn’t worn it for SIX years. I didn’t intend to revisit Costa Rica. I’d rebuffed opportunities for other sunny climes, such as Africa. And the long flappy shirt looked ridiculous for other domestic travel, aka the grocery store.
Months after Nancy politely rejected it, I threw it in my suitcase as a last-minute “layer.” And wore it four out of six days. How could this happen to someone who’s supposed the understand rightsizing? The truth is, I’d become a “just-in-case” packer.
The jacket was just in case the forecast was correct, and the daytime temperature in New Mexico was pushing 90. But what about evenings? The desert is unpredictable. What if it snowed? Rained? What if we were suddenly struck by a wind storm?
By the time I’d just-in-cased the possibilities, I had packed two vests (fleece and quilted), a packable rain jacket, a knit jacket for the plane, a light windbreaker and a hoodie and (after reading a random article about desert snow storms), and a packable winter jacket with a cap.
In one humbling trip, I encountered the rightsizer’s dilemma. Next time I say “just in case,” should I picture the bright salmon shirt? Or those seven other jackets? At least I can brag that they rode back home in the otherwise empty packable duffel I packed “just in case” I bought souvenirs. Which I did not. Except a few small ones.
Change in a Garden
There’s nothing like a garden to help us build the “change” muscle. I pulled out the garden map the sellers gave me when I bought the house four years ago, and so much was different.
Several “beauties” of their era, including an autumn clematis and a climbing hydrangea, had died. I had taken down a service berry tree that had outgrown its spot and given giant hostas a green light to get even larger. The false indigo, once at the edge of a bed, was now hiding under the growing branches of an Alaskan cedar.
Gone was the prairie grass that had taken over the back bed and in its place was a flowering cherry and a stand of shasta daisies. Gone was the perennial ground cover that was a pain to cut back and in its place were some coleus. Next week, say goodbye to the invasive English ivy, which has had the audacity to creep through the walls of porch, garage and basement.
Through it all, only the little statue of Buddha remains placid and unflinching – a reminder that change is inevitable and sometimes even an improvement.
Learning from Jars
I’ve had an aha!
It’s only a small leap from finding enough time to do it all – a lifelong challenge for me – to finding creative ways to rightsize my stuff! No wonder I’m intrigued with rightsizing!
I’ve always loved the metaphor Stephen Covey offers (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) on doing the big things first. You know the one. Put the big rocks in the jar first, then fit the pebbles and sand around them.
I was gob-smacked yesterday by another jar story – this one from a meditation in Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic. This one, called “You Can’t Always (Be) Get(ting) What You Want,” played off wisdom from the Stoic phiosopher Epictetus. He’d observed that children get their hands stuck in narrow goody jars when they grab too many treats at once. To get unstuck, they needed to let go of a few.
It seems I have a lot to learn from jars. Let go of doing too much, holding on to too much! Time and space aren’t so different.
