The Dangers of Cleaning

This evening I was in a cleaning mood. I have vacuumed, done laundry, put together a bag for good will, and ditched some papers that were never going to be looked at again. In all this cleaning I came across my notes from when I was teaching in rural Mississippi. Reading just a few excerpts reminded me of the level of crazy that was my life for that window of time. Case in point--I had completely forgotten that one day when our principal was mad at the faculty she made all of us stand for the first hour of our faculty meeting. That is what I call classy leadership. Needless to say, this trip down memory lane sparked two thoughts:

1. I really need to write some short stories about my MS experiences.
   
2. I am so glad to be where I am at in my life right now.
   

I also ran across a notebook that I had started to fill with quotes and favorite words. There were two entries that felt particularly apropos. One was a quote by Isak Dineson,"All sorrows can be borne if they are put in a story." Mississippi was a very rich experience and by no means only sorrowful. However, I do think the act of crafting stories based on the experiences will help me to catalog what was many times too overwhelming to process in the moment.

The other entry was just a notation about the Sanskrit word santosha which means contentment. In the yogic tradition of niyama or self-discipline, santosha is one of the ways to practice self-discipline. I need to re-explore this idea. One of my favorite practices, which I have been slacking on, is to start each morning by listing off reasons why I (should) feel gratitude. It is good for me to remember that contentment is not a lazy feeling.

No more cleaning for me tonight. I have enough to think about without unearthing any other trips down memory lane!