making space: day 3 and day 4

Do you love how I create a blog challenge and then skip a day?  Yes, well, I'm LETTING GO of feeling bad about that. :-)  I could claim a hectic day yesterday, I suppose, and I did do a number of things all day long including grocery shopping, house cleaning, some cooking, and working out at the HPER building with a friend.  Then went out for dinner on new year's eve with my son and his girl and some friends who then came back to our house to help polish off two bottles of cava, which is the Spanish version of champagne. All in all a good day.  And I am keeping this challenge always in mind.  Yesterday I did go through and get rid of a big pile of paperwork that was just sitting there, bugging me and taking up valuable real estate next to my sink.  I don't know why I let these things pile up.  They nag at me and still I do nothing. I am sometimes a master at total avoidance of mundane and necessary tasks.  Not a trait I like in myself, but there you have it.  Today I did something about it, though, and that makes me very happy.

Today I let go of fear, for one thing.  I really reconsidered this yearly goal of doing the Polar Bear plunge, wherein I throw my body into a frigid lake on January 1st.  I've done it for two years, but both years there was no snow and air temps in the 40's.  This year, there was snow and ice and it was 28F out with a windchill of 19.  I seriously considered copping out, but then husband mentioned how I had really talked this up to people. He is right.  I had boasted about past years and how I was all in again this year.  Ouch. Another lesson.  Stop boasting.  I was just so darned proud of myself!   Anyway, I felt bad about the boasting and figured I'd better get my butt out there and DO this thing if I was going to talk it up. I like to think of myself as more of a do-er than an empty talker about doing.  I think it's a good way to be. So I did it.  And again, it was a wonderful, exhilarathing experience!   It makes me feel strong and able and challenged.  It restores my faith in *me* that I follow through when I set a clear intention to do something.  I let go of the fear of the cold and totally enjoyed the experience.  End of boasting.  I highly recommend it.

I also, in keeping with the nature of the challenge to get rid of some of the detritus of my life, got rid of a sweater.  Folks, this is the saddest sweater you have ever seen.  One wrist was ripped up, it was covered in pills and lumps, and shrunken so much that it came up to about my navel.  I can't explain why I hung onto it except that at one time it was my most comfortable sweater.  Even today, I had to try it on one last time to assure myself that no matter how comfortable it was, this was a sweater that was rag-bag worthy, and that I should not ever be tempted to wear this sweater in public.  Ever.  I do so hang on to this kind of crap.  It can be a problem.  But I consigned it to the rag pile and never looked back. It it sort of exciting to think what I might get rid of tomorrow.  Since I have to go to work, it might be something there.  We moved offices over a month ago, and I still have a box of stuff I'm clinging to in a ridiculous way.  I can't possibly need anything in it at this point.  We'll see if I have the courage to do what needs to be done.  I jumped in a lake today, surely I can summon up the strength of character to tackle a box.