Tupperware

This morning I had the strangest urge to clear out some clutter. I know you can relate. It's about 10 years that I have contemplated selling my home and moving to a location which does not require a 2-hour commute. Now, I am engaged and the need to sell my home will at some point become a reality.

But, for the moment, the tupperware cabinet was enough to send me over the edge. I decided that every container without a lid just had to hit the road. But, once I tackled that I moved on to cabinet after cabinet. A wasteland of stuff. The task became too daunting and I packed one cardboard container--of you guessed it--tupperware without lids. And, then shut all the cabinets back up.

The box is of course now sitting in my kitchen and I will have to find a place to store it.

How do we acquire so much stuff????? Seriously, I have a million things with pigs on them.

The real issue is how is that we can't seem to part with this stuff. I believe in the law of attraction--even if I don't practice it daily. That we do need to clear out clutter so that the universe is able to fill us back up--and the clutter is not always in the cabinet. Sometimes, it lives deep within us.

Cleaning closets, cabinets and drawers is cathartic. And a necessary evil for someone thinking of moving.

But, the real challenge is to keep the cobwebs and clutter out of my brain. To let go of negative and restraining thoughts so that my light can shine a little brighter.

Hmmmm--I wonder if Molly Maids is ready for that one.

Paddling Upstream

Did you hear about the two teenage boys who canoed 2,200 miles in Minnesota. They evidently started in the spring at the height of the flood season and one of the teenagers described the experience as running up a down escalator.

Why would anyone want to do such a thing? Well, they were following a course charted in the early 30s'--but one of the main reasons they persisted through food poisoning, mother nature, hunger, etc. was the naysayers. They wanted to prove someone wrong. All the people that said they would never be able to make such a journey.

That's a fairly powerful urge.

How many times have we persisted in something just to discount the naysayers? I was thinking this through while listening to the NPR report. Is proving someone wrong a positive motivator--or simply spite?

Not sure I have a good answer for that one. But, I do applaud the desire to chart new territory. Even if the nudge to get there is as clear as mud.

It's not brain surgery

Networking this a.m. over coffee with a fellow PR professional the topic of control arose. I am in fact a type A overachiever, which has during the course of my professional career presented challenges. Trying to accomplish as much as humanly possible in as little time as possible. I have always stretched myself and encouraged others to relentlessly push the envelope of thinking outside the box. And, for the most part, have accomplished a great deal in my career in return.

But, I was reminded today and hence the urge--of something my father told me a number of years back. This isn't brain surgery. (A comment he made to me while I was lamenting about work.) I thought about calling my father to tell him that not only had I actually listened to his sage wisdom, but that I was also repeating it out loud to a peer. But, the urge was fleeting as I hustled off to the next meeting of the day.

Now, I do think that brain surgery is a serious matter and this is not at all to make light of those that actually work in a life or death profession.

Just had the urge to contemplate why so many of us live our lives as if every moment held such importance? And, in doing so, what did we miss along the way?

Brown Cow

In thinking about a url for this blog it ocurred to me that how now brown cow was fitting. This blog for me is all about things we are called to do. Hence--urgings. And, how now brown cow seems to speak to that.

I have had the desire to assemble a collection of thoughts--about things that speak to us as human beings. Things that we should act upon. And sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. The voice of the cosmic consciousness.

Earlier this year a friend's father was very sick. She had called to tell me he was coming home that weekend to begin hospice care. I got up that Saturday morning with a very strong urging to go and see her father, her and her mother. I was glad I did. Her father died the next morning.

And I wrote a letter to my friend and her mother which I called "Urgings," documenting what I had seen and felt that day.

So, I encourage you and me to listen to these urgings. And if you get the urge--share them.