On Minimizing My Life

Today I was supposed to write about my experience on minimizing my possessions and house. Instead, I am curled up on the couch with the spiking of my ever present abdominal pain and my house looks like a tornado has swept through it.

2017, I started out with intentions to take you on, to take back my life. But here I am again, canceling plans and binge watching way more TV than I ever wanted to.

My life is now explained through TV show quotes. If TS Eliot measured his life in coffee spoons, mine is measured in New Girl episodes. 

My only consolation is that the front closet is clean. There are bags of trash and donations sitting outside of it, but it is clean.

There is laundry piled up on the table where I folded it and Christmas decorations still scattered around the house.

But I realized today, I am minimizing something, my life. 

When these days hit, there are few things I have time for. Coffee is one of those things I make time for. Moving slowly, intentionally, helps keep the pain manageable. I spend the mornings curled up on the couch with a heating pad, sipping on coffee, and opening up my planner.

My planner keeps me centered. It focuses me on the tasks of the day, even if those tasks end up being canceled. It focuses my heart.

At the top of each page is a quote from The Book of Common Prayer and the lectionary of the day.

It is these words, the words of the Scripture set before me, that I pour over.

And as I sat, bound to my living room, viewing the undone tasks literally piling up behind me, I realized that I had minimized my tasks and focused on my priorities. Instead of using these moments to make my bed or empty the dishwasher, I was focusing on what I needed, the Word.

I hope desperately that, one day, coping with chronic pain won’t be part of my life. But for now, I hope that I will always find the focus and prioritizing that these couch-bound days have brought me.