Updates: Woggies 19 & 20

Woggy #19 Complete: Mail & Info Sorter/Organizer

It's taken a while, but I can finally check the remaining items off of my to do list for this woggy. As with all things it hasn't turned out to work quite as perfectly as I had been hoping, and we are tweaking it here and there all the time, but mostly, I am very satisfied with how this system has turned out. Our inboxes are no longer cluttered with old things, everything has a place to go, and we are finally able to leave each other notes and reminders in a way where the other person actually notices it and does something about it. Hooray!



Woggy #20 Update: Home Inventory

I took advantage of having all my boxes of holiday decorations down to take care of a much-needed chunk of woggy #20. I photographed and wrote an itemization of all major contents of our holiday decorations. the photos have been uploaded to my computer, but I have yet to enter all of the information and research prices in the actual inventory program. But even without that, this is a major accomplishment. Since we have over the years collected quite a few fancier glass ornaments, some of limited edition, I can only assume these are important items to include in our inventory for insurance purposes, especially if we were to ever need to replace them. They are all fairly safely nestled in popcorn most of the year, but when one lives in earthquake country, you never know.

Things I can check off my woggy to-do list:

X take down holiday items and photograph them
X put holiday items back away
X upload holiday item photos & add to hall closet folder

Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:

• research & re-enter all of the item details for the coat closet
  
• research & enter item details for holiday items
• photograph kitchen, dining area, living room, bedroom, garden, WIC, master bath, workroom, & workroom closet
• upload photos for all above rooms, and place in appropriate folders
• research and enter item details for all above items
• print out new household inventory
• adjust homeowner's insurance to new amount
• replace old inventory with the new one in our lockbox

Update: Woggy #15 Complete!!

Over the past several years, I've taken to the practice of sending myself on emotional/spiritual "retreats" These work much in the same way that official "retreats" at retreat centers work, except I just do them in my own home. Sometimes I plan them in advance, and sometimes I just take one when life is getting just a little too frazzled, when my mind and spirit have become lost or feel like they're scattered in a million directions, making nothing in my life work smoothly. Some last just for a day, others for a week, and one even for two weeks. But the goal of all of them is the same. Time to focus on spiritual and emotional issues, at the forefront of all other concerns.

With the whirlwind that always surrounds the holiday season, I have now made a specific ritual of doing a retreat each year right before the holiday craziness is about to descend, so that I can head into that season with a firm and solid grounding.

Over the past year or so, it has been during these retreats that I have made the most progress towards reading and finishing my Woggy #15, the book called Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life. And I'm happy to say that it was during my latest pre-holiday retreat that I was able to not only make time for and recover from an emotional slump in the previously mentioned Woggy #24 (my NaNo 2009 novel), but I was also able to finally finish reading Woggy#15.

The completion of this book is in my mind no small achievement. It is to me as significant and was as challenging as the task of writing a novel in one month, or my previous task of walking 70 miles on my own two feet. On a spiritual level all three of these tasks are completely connected for me, as they have all involved the same emotional and spiritual undertaking. They have each taught me the same lesson in different form.

But like the other two, while the tangible task has been completed, there is still plenty of learning and journey to go. I have read all of the words, I have done all of the main exercises. But many of the exercises are more of an ongoing process, which will not be truly completed for a year or more. And the lessons and discipline learned are ones I will need to carry with me on a daily basis in a conscious, mindful fashion in order for the learning and practice to be truly complete. This will continue until the day when all of these lessons are formed as intrinsic habits without my having to conscientiously consider them, if in fact such a day will ever come. Whichever may be true, I am thankful for having read this book, the process I've gone through and all that I've learned, and the continuing lessons I hope to carry with me into my future as a result of having read it.

"Life is a choice. The choice here is not about whether or not to have pain. It is whether or not to live a valued, meaningful life."