Death is not worse pain than an empty life. -- Lun Tha

I may have, cough, mentioned that I am a messy person. My desk is a scary place to be if one is a paperclip, pen, or stray postage stamp. If one is a piece of white paper, one will almost certainly be lost in the shuffle until The Mistress (me) brings some temporary discipline to her environs.

I am not a stellar housekeeper. I have mentioned that, too, I'm sure. I have always been a Messy. My whole life. I am not a slob, but I don't see stuff that needs to be picked up until I pretend I am, say, Mums. Then I see everything.

Well, when I was a little girl, I would have to clean my room periodically. Really. My parents thought this to be important. Imagine. Well, I would get overwhelmed by that. I wouldn't know where to start. I'd have STUFF everywhere...books, toys, socks... Everywhere. Plus, of course, I'd want to rearrange my furniture.

This was extremely frustrating for me.

It didn't get any better as I got older, but Mums did offer me a piece of advice I now use every day of my life.

Start in one corner and work your way around.

This applies not only to my kitchen and office, but also to life, I think.

When I am in an overwhelming place, I need to stop, breathe, and look at what I have to accomplish. Take a full view of "the room," if you like. Then, I start in one corner and work my way around. This means taking one task, either the one nearest to hand or the most urgent, and starting on it. Pure and simple. It means putting the others to one side and not doing them just then...letting them wait while I deal with Space Number One.

We can't put things off, but we can prioritize. Work on one thing and move on to the next. Clean off this part of the counter, from the edge to the wall, including chocolate powder from Cyclone's milk, and the toppled bananas from Scooter's need for a banana in the middle of the afternoon, along with an empty water bottle. Then move to the next space, where I see everyone's dinner dishes (I don't do dishes on Sunday if I can avoid it). And so on. Around the kitchen.

And around my life.

First, let's do the math with Cyclone, then we can do drawing with Scooter, then check in on the next editing job and then do a critique and then it's time for Language Arts and preparing for the seder on Sunday...

Take a deep breath, then start in one corner and work my way around.

Thanks, Mums!