making progress

on the advice of Mother Superior (Beloved's name for my mother), i decided to tackle my writing room one area at a time. unfortunately, the room is so big and there's so much stuff in it i was able to identify nine areas, rather like a feng shui bagua chart. somewhere along the way it occured to me i could set up my writing room with attention to each feng shui area, but for right now, all im doing is cleaning and decluttering.

i started at the doorway, and worked my way past the windows, the air-conditioner and starfish lady. so far i've managed to do about forty percent of the room... all the bookcases but one are sorted and cleaned out (kim: come on down and pick out any from my giveaway pile you want!!!). the ancestor altar is clean and rearranged, my baskets and candles are sorted and stored. the summer curtains are "dryer-cleaning" as we speak.

i have a plan of attack - as my grandmother used to call it - all plotted out, right down to dinner for the next five days. there's a load of towels in the washing machine, Beloved is cooking dinner. we spent almost an hour at the pool. if the weather holds, i might even harvest some of those weeds - the wild impatiens, the mugwort, the dandelions and yarrow - that are springing up so impudently among the other flowers.

next weekend, when Beloved has three days off, we'll go to brooklyn, and i'll go with a cleaner house, a tidier garden and a far less cluttered conscience.