Sunday, January 09, 2011

Leave it, Take it

Where did the last minutes of 2010 find you?

I found myself at one of my favorite spots just before midnight, at the apex of a rushing creek. It was balmy out, perfect for taking very deep breaths. In... out... in... it's where the water is both rushing at you, and also away, just like 2010.

Clearly not midnight

Soon after, the neighborhood exploded in fireworks and firecrackers, and the speeding cars made it unsafe to linger where the road meets ravine. All done now, leaving.

I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I love the idea of having a guiding word (or three) for the year, a la Chris Brogan and Christine Kane. I chose my three, and they're helping to clarify where I am and where I hope to go / be. So suddenly the water-damaged table needs hit with SoyGel (no, not an affiliate link), and the pile of nearly-dessicated kitchen lemons -- organic, even! -- long ago incapable of flavoring food or becoming part of an environmentally-friendly cleaner, are very obviously just yellow-brown, compact, nodular bombs that have to go. NOW.

Armed with a few words, it is easier to purge. Often I take stuff to Goodwill, but more often I leave stuff for the Take-It Faeries. In this neck of the woods, you leave what you don't want at the end of your driveway with a big FREE sign slapped on it, and sometimes within hours, it disappears. But the TIFs were picky today, only taking one item and leaving the other three.


Last week a student was attempting to play through a section that was giving her trouble, again. Suddenly, with wide eyes, she turned to me and exclaimed, "OHMYGOSH, what am I doing?!?" and then turned back to her work with a severity and determination to nail it this time. And she did.

What are you just taking / tolerating; what needs to leave?