This morning, I cleaned the vacuum. I mean, doesn’t everyone do that on occasion? It’s just been stinky, so I took it apart, washed it with Lysol and put it back together. Back in business!
I also dusted, decluttered, organized and have been having an amazing time hauling stuff to the trash bin. It is so satisfying!
After my first time through with the vacuum, I shut it off and it puked something on the brown throw rug I finished up on….
What the?
Shiny, silverish, tiny, long… anchor shaped.
Oh No!
Not my favorite pendant.
Platinum, delicate, perfect little anchor from the Pacific Northwest, with a lot of memories. A piece with the kind of value you can’t replace.
Lying there covered in vacuum yuck, tangled like old baling wire and twine, in the pasture dump of every ranch you’ve ever been to.
I have been in such a hurry – yesterday, today and all week. You see, I am hosting an event and it’s only 5 days, 3 hours and approximately 20 minutes away from right now. In fact, last week, two co-workers had to remind me more than once what day it was because I felt like time was going too fast. I thought it was Thursday – it was Tuesday. I was relieved and all they wanted was for me to be right so the weekend would be closer!
But, I’ve digressed.
Let me say, today is Sunday and yesterday was Saturday. Two whole days to tie up loose ends for the event, grocery shop for me, dad, the dogs and cats, clean, do laundry, prepare for my sister’s arrival at the end of the week and just have it all together!
While I have not been panicking, I have been rather unsatisfied with the amount of work I’m getting done.
Not because I’m not accomplishing the tasks needed. Not because I won’t be ready. Because I keep coming up with new ideas and tweaking this and adding that. You know, kind of like writing this blog post in the middle of Sunday when I should be finishing the cleaning or changing the laundry. But technically, if I finish it today, I won’t have to worry about it later this week.
#WINNING!
Is that a thing?
What I’m trying to say is that sometimes, even though I get more done before 10:00 AM than others do all day, it often doesn’t feel like enough. And when I’m in the middle of a little shame storm, I keep hurrying. Keep pushing. I keep telling myself it may never be enough.
Then, my vacuum spits my favorite necklace onto the floor, and everything stops.
I mean everything.
I gathered up my tiny piece of jewelry, walked it over to the desk, laser focused on how to fix this debacle.
And somehow I knew.
I found my needles and thread – yes – I have those still. I used to quilt and sew and patch and do ranch wife things. Long, long ago….
Then I found my glasses. The ones with the progressive lenses that my eye doctor said I needed, but also warned me to never wear while looking at a computer screen. Only for reading or other tasks when I need to look down. For the record, I read on a screen most of the time, and for the year and a half I’ve had these glasses, I’ve wanted to throw them away, but today, lacking a magnifying glass, I thought, “why not?”
And a flashlight – plus the overhead light. Apparently my eyes are not that good.
I proceeded to dissect my platinum chain with two needles, separating the links, being sure to not pull anything tight.
This particular chain has 3 loops on it so the necklace can be worn at different lengths and there were knots close to and intertwined in those loops.
I stood over the desk, using my tools like knitting needles, except instead of knit 1, purl 1, it was –
Yikes, don’t pull that too tight.
Relax.
Take a breath.
Ooohh, yeah, look at that!
And eventually, I had the whole mess untangled. It took about 20 minutes of what may be described as actual flow.
While I was in the midst of saving something precious to me, I forgot about all of the tasks. I forgot how I might not be doing enough or even being enough. I just accomplished something important in the moment. In fact, I flowed myself right into this little writing project.
It was kind of like, I got jerked up by the collar and someone said, “Enough!”
And, all of this to say, I’m ready.
What I have created is meaningful and it’s enough.
I have untangled not only the necklace, but my thoughts as well.
What I do every day is enough.
