I’m feeling better and getting back to work!

For me, a new project starts with cleaning up. Out with the old! Make room for the new!

My office has been an utter disaster. Two years (plus) of illness has meant that not much work has been done. Goddess-knows-what has been piling up on my desk, and those piles have fallen over and merged into each other. At various times, my office has become my bedroom, the only place which could accommodate a hospital bed and all the other accoutrements of illness.

It has been chaotic in every way and no part of my home shows that chaos like my office.

Not anymore!

It’s finally happening. I’m feeling good. I’m cleaning up. I’m down to two medium piles of as-yet-to-be-excavated paper on my desk, and I believe neither of these include medical records. All of those are filed now. And all hints of my dark times are gone. (Well, there IS a requisition for a lab test on one corner of my desk, but there will always be something!) I believe I am about to find my novel in progress and notes towards a book of essays.

I have cleaned the closet that got stuffed with stuff when we moved in. It is organized. I know what’s in there now. With all the clean up, I even found a home for the Emergency Go Bags. They don’t have to live under my desk anymore! It all feels good.

Some bonus work: I also sorted out and found homes for all of my sewing, knitting, crochet, and other crafts. I even put all of my patterns into a binder. This is extreme organization for me!

Now I’m going through my book shelves. I’ve just given away 20 or so books about writing to a local writers group–not because I’m done with writing but because I’m done with those books! I regained a whole shelf and that has become a dedicated poetry shelf. And I’m reorganizing the rest of my books in a way that meet the needs of the coming writing projects better.

And as I do so I’m reading. READING! Reading deeply. I’m able to concentrate. I’ve found my old ongoing annotated bibliography and I’m using it again, not worrying about the break. I just started a 2026 section and am going for it.

It’s not too early for spring cleaning–the cherry blossoms are coming out here–and that is where I am. Springing back to my working life.

Yay!