Cleaning up: A metaphor
Sep. 14th, 2011 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabrinamariToday I decided to clean my office.
I've been doing a lot of things lately, and my office has acquired a metric ton of clutter. I believe that clutter always has emotional energy attached to it---stale emotional energy. So I thought I'd file things, clear away the clutter, wipe away the dust and generally put stuff away.
I cleaned for a good 40 minutes and then came to my old computer docking station and stopped. It's big old thing that holds up a gynormous monitor and also has my old keyboard shoved up inside it, along with a mouse and various cords. I never use it anymore and I haven't for months---maybe even a year.
I noticed that it was dusty and kind of nasty, and it was taking up a big chunk of space on my desk. To accomodate it, I had arranged many of my desk-top items on the other side of my work space.
Looking at the whole mess, I thought, "Well, maybe I'll dust it and just call it a day---that thing is just too much of a pain to deal with." And what I meant by that was, "It's a pain in the butt to clean". I felt so overwhelmed that I decided to wander away for a bit.
Ten minutes later I dragged myself back to dust it.
It was an additional five minutes before a new thought occurred to me.
"Wait a minute...I could unplug this and move it out of my office".
This thing used to be really useful to me---it was critical to the functioning of my life, even.
But for months and months, it's been a piece of giant, invisible, annoying baggage that's been sucking up resources, limiting me and giving nothing back.
And I've been looking at it every day for a year.
Yet it took me an hour to realize that I didn't need it anymore and further, I had all the tools I needed to disconnect it, take it out of my office and move on.
It could just be me, but I think there's a metaphor for personal growth in here somewhere.
I've been doing a lot of things lately, and my office has acquired a metric ton of clutter. I believe that clutter always has emotional energy attached to it---stale emotional energy. So I thought I'd file things, clear away the clutter, wipe away the dust and generally put stuff away.
I cleaned for a good 40 minutes and then came to my old computer docking station and stopped. It's big old thing that holds up a gynormous monitor and also has my old keyboard shoved up inside it, along with a mouse and various cords. I never use it anymore and I haven't for months---maybe even a year.
I noticed that it was dusty and kind of nasty, and it was taking up a big chunk of space on my desk. To accomodate it, I had arranged many of my desk-top items on the other side of my work space.
Looking at the whole mess, I thought, "Well, maybe I'll dust it and just call it a day---that thing is just too much of a pain to deal with." And what I meant by that was, "It's a pain in the butt to clean". I felt so overwhelmed that I decided to wander away for a bit.
Ten minutes later I dragged myself back to dust it.
It was an additional five minutes before a new thought occurred to me.
"Wait a minute...I could unplug this and move it out of my office".
This thing used to be really useful to me---it was critical to the functioning of my life, even.
But for months and months, it's been a piece of giant, invisible, annoying baggage that's been sucking up resources, limiting me and giving nothing back.
And I've been looking at it every day for a year.
Yet it took me an hour to realize that I didn't need it anymore and further, I had all the tools I needed to disconnect it, take it out of my office and move on.
It could just be me, but I think there's a metaphor for personal growth in here somewhere.
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There is a blues song kinda about that...
Date: 2011-09-14 09:30 pm (UTC)Re: There is a blues song kinda about that...
Date: 2011-09-14 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 04:36 pm (UTC)(Actually, not that hard -- there are several. You have thirty seconds to think of three. On your mark... get set... GO! >:-)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 06:25 pm (UTC)Um, baggage that is blindingly obvious to everyone else is often almost impossible for you to see...
The most difficult to remove baggage is the stuff that was once critical to your survival, but is now just in the way
Humans are incredibly dense, and it's totally normal to spend eons staring at your baggage and feeling discouraged when actually, it's not all that difficult to get it off the
tabledesk.How'd I do?
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 06:48 pm (UTC)No, I meant the popcorn. Try again. >:-)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 08:45 pm (UTC)I meant, "find three metaphors for personal growth in a bowl of popcorn." Like this:
- If the potential in any human life is not harvested when ripe, that life can quickly become hard and withdrawn, and the potential gets put on a shelf.
- Life sometimes applies extreme heat, but only in the resulting explosion can we come to our full potential.
- Manifesting your potential is a fine thing, but everything can be improved by adding some flavor and mixing it up (butter and salt). Also, it's more fun to share with friends.
See? Now how hard was that? >:-P
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 08:47 pm (UTC)