The Activity Vacuum

For the non religious amongst you this is now what Christians call lent. To the slightly religious it is the time between pancakes and chocolate eggs. To the gardeners it is the time between the Christmas baubles sales ending and the patio furniture coming out at homebase. For self-employed back specialists it is peak trading time as we throw off our winter lethargy and begin to tackle the outdoors.

Traditionally it is a time to hold back and take stock. Last year I didn't buy anything for 40 days and wrote about it in my blog. This year I have done the same but with an added extra. I won't take on any new projects.

So for the next three days I will be writing about what this experience has taught me.
The added extra of not taking on any new projects came about when my dad got ill and I thought it would make sense not to take anything on that I may have to later pull out of. My dad then rallied rather and began to feel better which left me with a kind of activity vacuum. One might think that an activity vacuum is a toy where you can pretend to hoover up. I first found this in my friends flat when I moved in and soon discovered a plastic sucker instead of a proper plug.

I digress. So this activity vacuum began to feel rather good and I found myself more relaxed and organized. So why not encompass it into lent?

This leaves me with a messy room and no shopping to do or projects to plan. Faced with my own chaos and nothing to distract me I begin to organize myself.

First socks. I go through my sock drawer and find 12 socks. All different. Where are the others? I don't remember picking out 12 unmatching socks and throwing them away so they must be in my room. I begin to tidy. 63 minutes later I have 14 matching and 10 unmatching socks.

I declare this a success. The tidying begins to feel good. I start to work on the rest of the room which is also a general storage area for the flat. I find 7 eco lightbulbs, a pair of unworn trousers that fit perfectly, a bra that belonged to a bigger friend that I have now grown into and a nokia phone. It starts to feel like shopping without paying and without being arrested. I decide to write my next blog about adding an extra word to the reduce, re-use, recyle, repair line - REDISCOVER!