Time for Healing

   Those of you who follow me on Facebook are aware that my mother journeyed on in July of 2015 and my father journeyed on in 2017 and my brother(in-law) in 2018 along with three Elders who were my “advisors” in 2015, 2017 and my last living uncle in 2016.  The past three and one-half years have been quite eventful in so many ways.
   About a year or so ago, I discovered Marie Kondo’s “Tidying Up” process.  I’d been searching for ideas on motivation and came across this process.  I’d printed out several cleaning schedules, organizing tips and what ever else I could think of to help me in the process of clearing my parents’ belongings.  So many details to take care of.

   I found one lady, Laura, who owns the ““How to Get Your Shit Together”  site who had a “clean with me” evaluation of the book and the process on YouTube.  There were so many opinions about the process, I decided to buy Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up because of the controversial nature of some of them.  I was intrigued by the notion of thanking your belongings.  After reading the book, I discovered that there was more to the process than just thanking your belongings.  There was the “Spark Joy” aspect which solidified the process for me.  Letting go of things has been easier and I’ve finally got 45+ years of belongings sorted, though the final bit of handing them out will take place this summer.
   Part of the reason the book resonated so deeply was the “talking to your belongings” as this is inherently a part of my spiritual beliefs and my life values.  More importantly, I had validation for the actual process itself.  Yep, when I cleaned, I’d take everything out, clean, clear or dump and reorganize whatever I was working on.  A process which, inevitably, caused some members of my family to run as fast as they could in whatever direction was the clearest.
   Well, what has this to do with writing?
   Laura, the owner of the above mentioned site, had quite a few tips on many aspects of “getting your shit together.”  No, I didn’t leap on board all of them.  I like her style and her optimism.  She’d mentioned journaling, bullet journaling in particular, a number of times.  I’d checked a couple of the vids out and went back to the cleaning type stuff.
   Then this Christmas Eve, well, 2018, I had to go with my son because of his work schedule.  Stayed at the hotel with nothing to do from 2000hrs (8:00PM) on as I’d left my writing notebooks at home.  So, I decided to check out exactly what bullet journaling was.  Right that night I started as I did have the blank books with.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I grabbed the wrong ones in my haste to get going.  So not organized.
   I actually checked out Ryder Carroll’s site on the subject.  No, I have yet to purchase the book.  He does have a page “Learn” that explains the method.  What a relief!  I didn’t have to do all the fancy stuff that had been showing up in my searches online.
   I spent the next day setting up the pages and working out my task list.  The list consisted of five tasks for personal and two main categories for writing: developing my two websites and finishing my novels.  I kept them simple.  After 17 days of using this method, I’ve regained my “Spark Joy” in life.  Mostly.
   There are still occasions when memories overwhelm me and I feel sorrow and grief.  Those periods are changing: not as long and I see their faces in my memory of times they were proud of something I’d done.  Along with those memories, others are finally crowding in:  my aunts and uncles who’ve journeyed on and the good times we had, thoughts of all of them visiting, enjoying themselves after joining those they missed for so long.
   Along with the above mentioned journal, I got a chance to get the “How to Write a Novel” course Holly Lisle has on her site.  I’d been not writing for so long, when I started looking at the novels and where I’d left them, it was like I was starting over.  I have a few of the courses and books Holly wrote from pre-July 2015 as well as all the NaNoWriMo projects I’d done.  (I even managed to do NaNoWriMo even though it was a struggle.)
   I’ve spent quite a few of the past 17 days reviewing these and previously written Writing Goals.  I’d started revamping my Author site once or twice.  The gremli…’s decision to visit me means I don’t have much of what I’d done previously.  I did have the online backups which has helped in sparking joy in my life.  Since I didn’t have the final version of the Goals, the books themselves, I’ve had to re-think everything.  I was amazed this morning when I finally finished transferring my blog to Scrivener that it’s been two years since I’ve posted.  I haven’t looked at my personal journal site yet.  I may have posted a time or two on those blogs.  Not sure til I look at those and make decisions regarding them.
   Since I am entering the final six months of Mom’s journey, I can post on a more regular basis.  Hoping to have a book of Flash fiction available within the next month.  Hopefully on my Niiganabiik’s World site.  Still have to set up the store there.  It will most likely be a link to the LeanPub site where I am planning to publish the book.  Perhaps, on this site.
   I am so grateful for the memories I have and all who supported me these past years which have flown by; at the same time, crawled by.  Perhaps like my son once said “We went through a time warp.”  Or two, mayhap seven.  Giigawabimin Noongom.