1. First step: Discard everything all at once and completely before you do anything else. Ha.
2. In the kitchen, once I got close to the wood on the wooden table, I found a letter I wrote 3.5
years ago, but never mailed. The envelope was missing. Anyway, I read it, and who knows? I may have meant to send it to you, gentle reader. Here it is:
July 26, 2011
So, nu?That's it. You'd be amazed at what several hours of tidying up does for your place. How do you pick what to discard? (You can't throw out EVERYTHING)....If something does not give you JOY, pitch it. Don't even think of starting to organize anything. Just clear it all out! I pitched the letter, btw, now that I've made use of it.
Moving is heck!! My laptop is in the new abode, and my batteries--actually one battery--in the Blackberry is fading, and the charger is in the new place, too. This is the price I pay for being so acquisitive. Too many chickens to count & keep track of.
Anyway, I thought of you this eve as I read a great book, Train your brain more. I am
reading it by hand, turning the pages myself, etc. The author, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a big gun in neuroscience, shows lovely charts that picture various areas of the brain that light up when they are active. And here's how they stack up from lots of areas lit and bright down to least lit and dim:
1. Solving simple calculations quickly.
2. Reading aloud.
3. Writing.
4. Silently reading.
5. Solving simple calculations slowly.
6. Watching TV.
7. Solving difficult calculations.
8. Thinking (as in meditating).
There is no entry for pushing buttons to turn pages on a Nook. I pass this on to you lest you slide into a stupor while reading. I suggest you read your Nook out loud. V. good for brain. :)
Yrs. truly,
M.E. C........
author, artist, and hoax
My grandma used to say "If it doesn't eat...and you don't have to pay taxes on it...KEEP it." This worked when folks lived on farms I suppose. More room. Less things. As I stash "stuff" into crannies of tiny condo, trying to keep it out of sight, trying to keep living space at least superficially clutter free, I find the hardest thing to toss out are her words.
ReplyDeleteYou had one powerful grandma! She's living with you!
ReplyDeleteI'm the sort who 1) puts a piece of paper in the recycle bin, 2) retrieves the piece of paper from the recycle bin a couple of hours or days later and puts it on her desk, and 3) endlessly repeats steps 1 and 2. That's how I got into the USN-Reserves. It had been nearly one year from the time someone had left the flyer on my door to the time I sent a letter to the USN-Reserves. (It took them two days to reply and another three days to get me enlisted!)
ReplyDeleteCop Car
Lucky them!!
DeleteP.S. I like the third of your titles!
ReplyDeleteCC
haha...hoax??
DeleteI had to go to a meeting at a neighbour's house. It was so tidy! My house will never look like that house.
ReplyDeleteBet she has a cleaning service. or she reads Flylady.com. reminds me...i MUST go into my den and stack my books on the floor properly. Jackie Onassis stacked books on her floor.
DeleteI read that reading on a tablet can interfere with sleep patterns, something about the blue light emitted from such devices. I've switched from Nook to iPad for my reading, which has a nighttime setting -- black page with white print -- so hopefully that's better. I do like reading a real book though -- the feel of something solid in my hand, the quality of the paper and print, my favorite bookmark marking my spot, so different from staring at a two-dimensional lit rectangle!
ReplyDeleteelectronic devices put me to sleep. I had insomnia for years soon after we got cable TV in our house in Iowa, and i would watch movies and Australian league football--players were shorts! but it all put me out like a light.
DeleteI once partook in a neuroscience experiment. I flew a small plane for an hour from A to B while hooked up to the EEG gear. Then I "flew" the same route in a simulator. Next day we did it from C to D in the reverse order. They never did tell me the results (if any) though :-(
ReplyDeleteYou took off and landed without a hitch, I'm sure. Bravo!!
Delete