Moving Day Two

I will take care of today and let the future take care of itself.

Unknown
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Hello Stuart
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Life is unfinished business, I have often said. It's a refreshing thing to realize that the thing you took care of yesterday you don't have to deal with today, and the thing you deal with today you won't have to face tomorrow. And tomorrow's tasks are the things of tomorrow, not today. And so each day unfolds with it's separate challenges and deeds. Today is the day you live. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.

I was talking last night with two friends who, like me, just moved into a new home. We were comparing the processes of discovery, that strange and magical moment when you open a box and find something you forgot about or maybe even thought you lost. Then comes the head scratching dilemma of finding the thing you know you kept and packed somewhere. But all cardboard boxes and shopping bags look the same, they don't announce what's in them. If you were smart you labeled the boxes "summer clothes" or "kitchen stuff." But you probably didn't. Then when you finally uncover last years' tax returns you wonder how they got packed with the kitty litter.

There's an old saying you've no doubt heard "It takes o' heap of livin' to make a house a home." One of the joys of moving into a new place is knowing that one day soon it will be the place where you can comfortably start that heap of living. As you stare at the chaos you can know that it will get harmonized one day into a living space.

I've noted that every important decision I make, every step in the learning ladder of life experience, every realization of a previously unknown truth presents an upheaval of my thinking, a minor or major mental chaos. I've learned not to expect an instant straightening out of the mental mess or immediate answers to some of the questions. It is enough for me to know that eventually, some time in the future, it will get sorted out if I deal with as much of it as I can today and not worry about tomorrow.

That is not to say that people shouldn't have hopes, dreams and plans. But even those must be dealt with one task, one day at a time. They will never be fulfilled unless they are. But for today the dream is unfulfilled, like your home, like your life, it's unfinished business.

DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
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Doing Things

Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom.

Thomas Carlyle
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Hello Teresa
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I know guys who will buy a house and keep fussing with it and the grounds around it trying to get it just they way they want it, so they can sit back, relax and enjoy it. Somehow they seem to never finish. It's surely a matter of pride and contentment to have a nice house and garden, even though it always needs some fussing. That's part of the joy of owning it, I suppose.

I suppose, I say, because I've never owned a home of my own. On the contrary I live in what the contented house owner would probably call chaos. I also have a lot of fussing to do but it's of a different ilk. My time and energy is taken up making things, words on a page, paint on a canvas and wondering what to do with that pile of cardboard boxes I have piled up in the other room.

Normal behavior says I should be keeping my apartment spotless, ship shape, spick and span. But normal I'm not, and I will ignore the dirty dishes in the sink if I have an idea for a story. My apartment is my studio and my work place. My dinner table is also my writing table.

Now don't misunderstand me. If you are the type who insists on total clean with everything in it's place I think that's great. If I could afford the maid, secretary, butler, cook and chauffeur I deserve, they would probably have me straightened out in no time. But for now I have to contend with things on my own, and the things I choose to contend with are the ideas flashing around in my nicotine/caffeine stuffed brain, the tasty dreams that keep me awake, the silent sea creatures and screech owls of my imagination.

You can keep your mahogany den, your mosaic tiled bathroom, your rose garden and your two car garage. Joy to you. I am happy in my kingdom.

DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
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AUTUMN QUESTION

What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?

3 answers so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

I await your answers.
DB
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Horrible Housekeeping 9/21/09

I don't mind if there's clutter in my life. It always assures me that I have something to do.

DB - The Vagabond
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Well, look who's here.
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Ah, the games we play, the tricks we play.

I might as well have a job I don't like. Monday through Friday I spend in a state of dread and stress trying to get this law suit settled in a satisfactory manner. Every time I think I have a loose end tied up it pops out somewhere else. I'm surrounded by threats and starving for information. I can only get slivers of it at a time. I don't know what's going on in the court or out of it because there isn't much people can tell me yet. I know about courts. The court is a contest between two sides in which only one side knows the rules.

While facing the dread of some other document showing up at my front door and facing it alone, I have a hard time dealing with anything else. Almost everything in my life has to wait. So when the weekend comes I can relax somewhat. But it usually takes me until Saturday evening before I start seriously thinking about anything else. I'm glad to be an American, But sometimes it's hard when the law allows the rich to sue the poor for money.

I woke up at 6 a.m. this Sunday in order to listen to one of my favorite radio programs: Sunday Morning Opera, with Sandy Steiglitz, WPRB, Princeton, New Jersey. (She'll make an opera lover out of you.) I used to go on the air when I was a morning DJ. Now that I'm retired I let Ms. Steiglitz do it for me. The apartment was cold when I got up. I have theoretical heat. There's a thermostat. The radiator clicks a little bit and it heats up the carpet next to it. That's it. So I went looking for the heater I bought last year when I was shivering.

There's nothing like searching for something to tell you how much chaos you have in your home. There's nothing like focusing your mind on a problem that demands to be solved to show you how much unnecessary mental and emotional baggage, doubts, fears, confusions, dreads, overlooked duties, forgotten responsibilities and unfinished work is lurking in the dusty corners. Until the trouble is over it will just have to wait.

DB - The Vagabond
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Pray.
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WEEKEND QUESTION



This is your last chance.



Summer is almost over, Autumn is on the way (check your calendar if you don't believe me). Answers to the SUMMER QUIZ will be posted on the first day of Autumn, tomorrow. But then the AUTUMN QUIZ will start. And that's where you come in.



Your mission is to provide me with a question, or two or three, for the AUTUMN QUIZ. You may enter as many times as you wish (no proof of purchase necessary) but you have only today, so get cracking. There are only 4 responses so far.



The decision of the biased, curmudgeonly judge is final.



The winner not only gets his/her question posted for the season, but also gets to sit on my front porch and listen to me ramble on for hours about nothing in particular.



Good luck.



DB