Amidst Clutter

I’ve been going through drawers today - actually I’ve been clearing clutter for the past couple of days. Moving furniture around. Bruising myself - just my finger but a ‘battle scar’ none the less.

In small spaces, one needs to use all the space that one can find. Initially I filled drawers and corners and...well drawers and corners...until there were no drawers or corners left to fill. This clutter clearing has put a new face on down sizing - at least in my mind. In the corners and crevices, I have found scrunched up plastic bags, plastic bags containing screws and bolts for some unknown thing I put together a long time ago, three bags (plastic) of coin wraps, another bag (yes, plastic) of match books - and of course electric cords for unknown electronic devices. In other words, the clutter that I’m clearing is of little to no use, although the matches would come in handy if there was ever a black out.

I suppose one point of this essay, is that clutter breeds - or we breed clutter. I do recall being amused, as a teenager and young adult, of all the plastic containers saved religiously in kitchens of friends and family - until entrepreneurs designed, produced and sold fancier containers. Now, we - I suppose I should just say me - save plastic bags!

More interesting was the drawer that I cleaned out in my newly reorganized second bedroom. This excursion into clutter has been like going through a box of old photographs, a slowly fading fascination in this digital age. What I found was a folder with tiny paintings, tiny pieces of personal vitality, that I had painted while trying to find my feet in the world outside of work schedules and nursing. They are definitely not high art, but they are a lovely part of my then budding creativity. There they were tucked in one of the drawers, lying quietly waiting to be rediscovered.

“You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer 

in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.”

~ Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes