Enough, already!—Month two

Last month, in a flash of insight probably induced by eating (rather than selling) too many of my son’s choir’s fundraising chocolate bars, I decided to declare “Enough, already!” to the things that I have too much of or that are zapping my energy, in order to make room and time for the things I want more of. So that I can actually remember that I’ve decided to do this, I’ve planned to give each month a theme.

Last month it was “Enough procrastination, already!” I made a list of five things I’d been procrastinating about and did four of them. The fifth required input from someone else who obviously didn’t get as jazzed about my catchy theme as I did. That’s okay, though, because this isn’t about perfection (I keep telling myself), and I got several other left-on-the-back-burner things done as well. I’ve also become more aware of when I’m about to procrastinate and why I do it. For example, I put off preparing my invoices because (a) I usually feel like a big faker who can’t possibly deserve being paid and (b) I hate asking people for money. So now I’m on the road to improving my procrastination habit.

This month my theme is “Enough garbage, already!” I recently took a trip to the local dump, which was surprisingly—both to me and to the people who saw me cry—traumatic. I’m not sure why I reacted so strongly. I grew up close enough to my hometown dump that we could hear the hum of the bulldozers (when the hum of the freeway and the roar of the airplanes overhead weren’t too loud). I used to go there periodically with my dad and, as far as I remember, I didn’t cry then. And it’s not like I’m unaware that people throw things away. But for whatever reason, this trip got me to thinking about garbage in a serious way.

For this month’s “Enough, already!” I’m going to interpret the theme of garbage broadly. First, there’s the physical garbage—what we bring into our house and what we get rid of (and how we do it). Second, there’s the garbage I put into my body (see “empty box of fundraising chocolate bars” above). While it’s not entirely the same kind of garbage I put into my body in my youth, it’s still not good for me. And third, there’s emotional garbage taking up too much room in my life. Some of it has been rotting for years and new stuff gets produced regularly. It’s time for it to go.

After reading my post on going to the dump, Margerie emailed me to suggest that I start a “Green Friday” post of environmental tips. She said she could sense my passion for the subject, which might have been a diplomatic way of saying, “It’s not normal to cry at the dump, you dork!” I love this idea, but as I said in that post, even though we’ve been trying to live in an environmentally friendly way for decades (ouch), I’m no expert. So maybe you all can help me by posting your own tips or sending me suggestions. Not one to procrastinate (ha!), I will start this Friday.