Issue 277-Getting Out the Kinks

Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

February 26, 2019 Issue No. 277

Getting Out the Kinks

 

People talk about needing to reset and unwind, and I’ll admit that even though I thought that sounded nice for them, I didn’t think it applied to me. Besides, I wasn’t sure that if I unwound completely I could ever reel myself all the way back in.

I’m hardly a workaholic, so I always justified taking my computer on vacation as the price I paid for being self-employed. This year, however, my laptop is on its last leg, and taking all the accessories that are keeping it going seemed ridiculous. So I left it at home and took a longer-than-usual trip to Florida to visit my Dad.

I haven’t even been home for 24 hours yet, but I’m feeling pretty good. I feel energetic, and calm, and like I can “gather myself back up,” and maybe, I even got some kinks out. You know the way sometimes the only way to get a kink out of a necklace is to unhook it and let it hang until it untwists? I’m that necklace. I don’t know whether it was the snorkeling, or the jigsaw puzzle, but I feel centered and ready to get back to it.

We are all so tethered to our computers and our phones, it can feel like a leap of faith to unplug, even partially, for a week.

I believe perspective is an invaluable element of organization, and how can we ever have perspective when we are so “in” our daily lives? A week in the sun, (spent largely in a place where 89 is considered young) makes everything look different.

The pile of mail on my desk is just a pile, and I know how to deal with it.

I don’t have to do my taxes today.

And if I can keep this Zen feeling, maybe I can continue to move efficiently through life without getting so tightly wound.

But if not, at least I know I can go to Florida for a week without my computer and the sky won’t fall.