The Sandcastle

I’ve been reading again about people simplifying their wardrobes. It reminded me of a contest I read about some time ago.

Each woman was given three grocery bags and told to bring only items that would fit in those bags. Then there would be fashion show.

The woman who won brought one bag of clothes and two bags of accessories.

Another woman I read about recently wore the same dress to work every day for a month. She simply changed accessories every day. No one noticed.

You don’t need a lot of clothes to have a changing wardrobe.

I currently have four pairs of jeans in various colors, four hoodies, and eight t-shirts. I can go forever without wearing the same outfit twice. And that’s not even changing shoes, scarves, or jewelry.

TTYL,

Linda

Another night, another odd dream.

In this dream I was given an appointment to see an ophthalmologist at 85 Alcott Tower–a new building I had never been to before.

As usual Dave drove me to the appointment. We had instructions to park at the top of the ramp. As we went up I saw several people, each inserting a capsule into a pneumatic tube system. Those systems use air pressure and vacuum to move the capsules from one place to another. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen or used one but they used to be common in stores, offices, and drive-through banks.

We parked and started walking down a hallway. I saw a guy place a capsule in a tube but it didn’t go anywhere. Then a saw a person carrying a couple of capsules down a hallway. Odd.

Eventually we reached a glass door with the number 85 on it. We went through it to find a stairway that went down half a floor. Down there we found another glass door with the number 85 on it. Going through that door we found ourselves outside on a sort of balcony type walkway.

Looking left we saw a toy store with a sign saying 85 Alcott Tower. So we went there and I told the clerk I had an appointment to see an ophthalmologist at this address. Then said, “Yes, I’ll take you back.”

Then I realized the shop was only one counter deep and it only sold vision toys. I saw a kaleidoscope, an old-fashioned stereopticon, a ViewMaster, and a pair of binoculars next to a bird identification book.

So, I was in the right place it just had an odd presentation.

So what was all this about?

On a recent visit to my optometrist, she discovered I have both cataracts and glaucoma. Cataracts are a thickening of the lens in your eye that causes loss of vision but can be cured by lens replacement surgery. Glaucoma is an increase of pressure in the eye that can damage the optical nerve eventually causing blindness.

So I need to schedule cataract surgery. In the meantime, I have drops to put in my eyes every night to reduce the pressure and an appointment mid-January to see how that is working.

I wonder if that toy store sells audio books?

TTYL,

Linda

 

As a minimalist, if an order comes to evacuate, it takes five minutes to gather what you have already deemed is important to you.

For us it would be our electronics, our medicines, and a change of clothes. All our important documents are already saved in the cloud but we would grab the box of hard copies from my desk if we had time. We would not mourn the loss of any other physical possessions as we no longer deem them important enough to mourn. Yes, we would miss some of them, but we do not NEED them.

In fact, we do not need to save all our electronics since they could be easily replaced as long as we have our backup drives and the things we store in the cloud. And we could fairly easily get more meds from our pharmacy. But, we’d rather not spend our money replacing them nor fighting with insurance companies for reimbursements.

Our reality is, as long as we get the two of us out, we’d be fine.

TTYL,

Linda

A minimalist can have lots of stuff. A minimalist can have a busy looking living room with lots of art on the wall and throws everywhere. A minimalist is simply someone who uses and enjoys everything they own.

A minimalist couple may own lots of wine. Because they truly enjoy drinking wine. But they will have only one corkscrew–the one that works best for them whether it was cheap or expensive to acquire.

A minimalist may have several photo albums. Because they enjoy reviewing them frequently to experience again they joys of the days pictured.

A minimalist may have lots of camping equipment but it will be only those things they use regularly when they go camping.

A minimalist may have lots of dishes because hosting gatherings is a favorite thing to do.

There is no right or wrong number of things a minimalist owns as long as those things are ones they use and enjoy regularly.

TTYL,

Linda

When we look in a mirror we should see a reflection of ourselves. But we don’t.

Some of us avoid looking in a mirror because we don’t want to acknowledge what we see reflected there.

Some of us look in a mirror only to attack ourselves. Saying things like: “What a loser! “Do you really think you can accomplish that?” “What a mess.” and so on.

Yesterday I watched a video where the author of High Five Habit talked about how we see ourselves and how we can change that vision.

She asked us what we are thinking when we high five someone. Things like, “You’ve got this” “Way to go!” “I’m proud of you”.

She suggested that each morning you look in the mirror and give yourself a high five.

Without actually saying anything.

So I did.

And saw the biggest smile on my face that I have seen in a long while.

And every time I think of it I smile again.

Even when not facing a mirror.

And I feel empowered.

Try it.

TTYL,

Linda