Day 36: Reflect Your Passion

OK, I’ll admit this sounds very New Age-y and has probably elicited more than a few eye rolls. But bear with me a moment. I can explain.

When we first moved to our home 13 years ago this December, I immediately set up my home office in its current location on the second floor. At the time, just having two windows was a vast improvement over the dark basement I’d worked in for the better part of a decade. Over the years in our new home, we repainted, wallpapered, improved, enhanced and tweaked just about every room in the house … except the one where I spend the most time – the office.

So this year when my son asked if there were any projects he could work on to earn some spending money over Thanksgiving break, I quickly suggested revamping the office. I spent a couple of days taking down pictures, clearing off shelves, cleaning out files, removing the items I’d slipped under the glass top of my desk. To my dismay, I discovered a calendar from 1998, a phone and answering machine circa 1987, and photos of my children in preschool (they are now 23 and 20).

Now the job is finished. The walls are painted a peaceful sea green (guaranteed to give me bliss, according to the Feng Shui book I consulted). There are no more slips of paper or old photos under glass. I have a new digital cordless phone that came with a 73-page instruction manual. And I’ve only filled one shelf of the five-shelf unit.

What to do next?

It would be easy to just put everything back. Too easy. And it would be just as easy to keep everything stark. And cavernous. I kinda like the way my voice echoes when I holler at the latest computer malfunction.

But instead I’ve been thinking about how this room should really reflect who I am. Today. Not in 1987. Not in 1998. Not when my kids were in preschool. Who am I today? And therein lies the challenge: to Reflect My Passion.

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Last night my hubby brought me a bamboo plant in a silver vase, decorated with ornaments for Christmas. Supposedly, even I can’t kill it. And, according to the little blurb attached to the plant, “Lucky Bamboo … is used to enhance Feng Shui – the flow of ‘Chi’ or positive energy in any environment.” Perfect! This morning I watered it and placed it in the right-hand corner of my desk. Positive energy. That’s something I can get passionate about.

I also ordered a tea-light candle holder with one of my favorite sayings by Gandhi engraved in it: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It, too, is silver, which my Feng Shui source assures me, when combined with white, will generate a calm atmosphere. Calm. Now that’s something I’d like to reflect.

I’m also pretty passionate about the healing power of humor in my life. So, to add a little levity, I returned most of my frog collection to one of the empty bookshelves. I took many of the small plastic, paper and ceramic frogs and arranged them in a fishbowl-like glass container to keep dusting to a minimum.

Tomorrow I’ll be putting up my watercolor of Mt. Chocorua – our favorite mountain to hike in New Hampshire – as well as my autographed poster from Jekyll & Hyde. I am passionate about my memories of the past as well as my plans for the future.

I still have plenty of clutter to clear out of my closet, one more box of stuff to sort through that may or may not find its way back, and a stack of Christmas gifts in a corner that need to be wrapped and put under the tree – but so far I’m pretty happy with my new environment. I finally feel like I’m taking care of myself in the place where I spend the most time … and that’s pretty awesome!