Feng Shui :: The Chinese art of positioning objects in buildings and other places based on the belief in positive and negative effects of the patterns of yin and yang and the flow of chi, the vital force or energy inherent in all things.

It is hot, hot, hot!! In my attempt to keep cool in my non-air conditioned house, I’ve taken to wearing a cold, wet hand towel around my shoulders. Kind a damp shawl, if you will. Exhausted from the heat yesterday, I lay down on the carpet next to the big fan and fell asleep. It reminded me of when I was little, and, if it was really hot, I’d sleep on the cool linoleum tiled floor in my bedroom. In the early morning hours I’d start to feel cold, but being half-asleep, instead of climbing into bed and pulling up the covers, I reach over and grab the throw rug and pull it on top of me. In the morning I’d wake up with dust bunnies and cookie crumbs from under the rug stuck to my skin and hair. Not a pretty picture. The amazing thing is, that my body didn’t even mind sleeping on a solid, hard floor. If I tried that now, I probably wouldn’t be able to walk the next day!

So what do I decide to do on the hottest day of the summer so far?? Clean out my studio/office, of course. My husband has been bugging me to rip out the disgusting, once beige, now gray carpet. It took me a long time to work up the courage to go through this process. I have to move everything out. What a job. So I decided if I was going to to do that, I would do a little (major) decluttering along the way. Because frankly, I just have too much crap. But my problem is, especially when it comes to sorting out my books and magazines, it takes me twice as long to do anything because I have to flip through every book/magazine/notebook that I encounter along the way.

What’s this? A journal from 1980 – 82?? Wow, what a trip. Yes, I’ll just have to read a few pages, and a few more, and two hours later I can put it in the grocery bag marked “save.” Actually, I think I should put it in a locked box labeled “Destroy after Karen’s Death,” because I do not want any of my relations looking through that thing!

I bought a book a few years ago called De-cluttering the Feng Shui Way, or something like that. It was very interesting. I didn’t buy all of the philosophy (especially when they started talking about uncluttering your body and the importance of daily, free-flowing bowel movements), but one thing really got me. The book said that all the junk we accumulate is because we live in fear. We fear that if we throw something out, we’re going to need it the next day. BINGO! That’s me to a T. But hey, this happened to me just the other day. I tried to de-clutter that narrow space between the refrigerator and the wall and put all the old accumulated brown paper bags in the recycling bin. Three days later, I needed them to help me de-clutter my office. Isn’t that always the way? I wonder what Feng Shui afficinados would have to say about good old Murphy’s Law?

I’m going to Home Depot to look for some cheap, stick-on vinyl tile for the floor. Now if I could just bring myself to unhook the computer . . .