Day 15/40
September 16, 2001
Yes. Please. Delete contact.
I threw away 1,000 business cards last night, accumulated over a decade in a big plastic folder. No offense – and I'm sure many of yours are in there, but seriously – I'm in touch with those I need to be in touch with and there's databases and address books and I have no room for this folder in my drawers and that's that.
Next on the agenda – going through my email inbox and unsubscribing from some groups that I somehow once upon a time got on. Delete. Make room for new.
PREPENT is great for taking stock of what matters most and what's gotta go. Fall cleaning. Finding focus means having to make hard decisions about choices that may not serve the new me as well as they served the old me, just this past year. Meat for instance, or a certain types of language, or some people who are no longer in my life for various reasons. Some passed on, some just slipped out of close proximity. I'm working on the list of the people I care for most and to whom I want to reach out and wish a good year – and by definition that means de-prioritizing others. It's harsh but true, and can and should be done quite privately as each of us begins the reckoning of who we are and how and why. Focus. Delete. Improve.
It can be cruel. A former lover de-friended me and must have blocked me on FB and changed email addresses and I have no way of contact. It's a rare exception and I guess it's what has to happen so that our breakup, not that long ago, is complete. But I respect his choice and I get it and I wish him all the balance and joy and love in the world. We do a lot of different things so that our souls survives – and thrives.
I'm getting ready for the third Sabbath of this prep period with fresh flowers and a cleaner home and two big bags of garbage full of past and one more trash can on my desktop – ready to go to where no files return.
delete.
Shabbat Shalom.