Reduce. Recycle. Re-imagine.

It started with a headache. I woke up from the pounding just before my alarm. That measly ten minutes is both infuriating to miss out on, and really meaningless in the grand scheme. Maybe I’d make it up at some point today. Could I steal away for 10-15minutes after the kid are at school and after my first couple of calls? Unlikely. But thinking out the chance of such a thing was enough to lift me out of bed, and send me along my morning’s way.

I’d planned to workout. Had a class booked, even. But then I also booked a Doctor’s appointment for A and the latter superseded the former. Coffee, no breakfast, no water. Kids, packed lunches, dropped off the oldest one and then headed to the appointment. Learn that A will need in-grown toenail removal on both feet but they’ll only do one at a time because the recovery lasts two weeks on average. Oof. Take her back to school, all while checking emails at red lights and calling into zoom meetings. Chugging more coffee and planning my next “in between” minutes and hours. Between these two calls I’ll try to knock out these to-do items. And between these things I’ll call about this thing.

I field a couple of calls from co-workers, each with their own unrelated complexities. I answer about 30 emails, each one taking a few minutes to research and another few minutes to respond, and later another few minutes clicking through making sure I was right, didn’t miss a step, and you know… another couple of minutes per email to “read it back from their perspective” out of the sent box. You know you do it.

Then a call from a family member. Another problem. Needs my help. And attention. Ideally immediate. Okay. Let me step away. Feeling pulled away. In several directions at once.

E walks through my office. We both work remotely and from home. Usually incredibly grateful for such a thing, occasionally it feels a little south of that. A little more irritated. A little more “just want to be alone and not have to navigate interacting with another human who is just as stressed when I’m THIS stressed…” And that’s where we landed on this particular day. Both eliciting a tone that is 90% not the other person’s issue nor fault and 10% “I’m sorry I’m taking it out on you but you’re here and I love you and I know you’ll forgive me and understand.” No crossed lines. Just minor annoyance and subdued eye-rolling.

I sit back down and a new round of 30ish emails is waiting for me. And one of those earlier emails has a long tail of clarifications, questions, new ideas and thoughts and comments that were ignored when I brought them up weeks ago - now reimagined and repackaged and re-addressed. Deep breath. That’s okay. Here we are. Same team. Don’t overthink it. Lend grace. Ask for it too.

I work without break. I have two of three things going at once. On a call, responding to emails, and updating documents/deals/assets. Lots of windows open - on my two screens and in my head.

The headache. Its worse. Shit. Forgot to eat. I’ll microwave and scarf down some Costco Asian noodles that surely aren’t spoiled after nearly a week in a cooler in the garage when we didn’t have power. That was a rough week. Am I still carrying that weight? I think I must be.

The internal monologue is assaulting. Not intentionally. That inner voice isn’t blaming, or even complaining to be fair. But she sure is cognizant of ALL thing many things we’re juggling together at the moment. All of them feel pretty heavy. And kind of all over the place. And there’s just so many of them. To many.

I go to throw away my less-than-nutritious mini-meal, and notice the recycle bin is full. Oh I’m so taking a minute to go outside and empty the recycling in the larger single-stream bin out back.

Immediately I’m in love with my decision. It’s so nice outside. Texas Winter, when you're not trying to kill us - you can be so pleasant.

I open the recycle bin and it’s packed. Full to the brim. We still have more than four days before it gets picked up. Can I even fit this extra stuff in there? I really don’t think I can. Of course. Brought this out here for nothing. Guess I’ll take it back in. Or worse, leave it out here to get soggy. And then beat myself up for it later. That feels familiar.

And then I lean my head to the side and take a closer look. That filled-up recycle bin isn’t even that full. I mean it is. It IS. But it has pockets of air. Of lightness. Of light. Quite a bit of it, in fact. You just have to take the time to look.

And after looking I realize… I bet I can fit that in. I just need to move this over. And that over there, I could probably flatten it. And this thing, I bet it would actually fit inside of that thing - and together they can take up as much space as each other alone.

I feel myself shift. Focusing less on my headache, and on the weight of the day and the things… and more encouraged, motivated, excited to clean it up. To make space.

And I’m oddly excited about an immediate sense of purpose. A task. I can do this. It won’t even take long. This is doable. I set down the recycle can I brought outside, and get to work.

First I break down all the big boxes. Next I flatten the smaller ones and stack them all inside of the frozen pizza box - which I’ve designated as the primary holder of the broken down containers. I put all of the aluminum cans in one box. Sparkling waters, hard kombuchas, and craft IPA’s. ‘We’re so Austin’ I chuckle to myself. I stack all of the larger plastic containers. Buy one, get one Danishes at Costco, baby. E and I sit and wait for the kids to be “for sure” asleep as we watch things on TV we can’t with them awake, and eat our guilty baked good pleasures together. I smile at that. Inside of those larger containers - there berry containers will fit. Our “little” family of six can put back some berries, y’all. Like a pack for one breakfast. And strawberries? Those things don’t stand a chance here. Only one bottle of Still Austin Whiskey. The whiskey is great - but our favorite is Treaty Oak. Though Still has a heck of a brand. I can see E making the Old Fashioned we so like to enjoy together in my mind’s eye. I love this cherished time together. It’s as sweet as that $25-per-little-jar Luxardo cherry.

Just a moment ago it was a mess. You could hardly tell what was what. Just that it was chaotic and full and it was ALOT. But each item had a memory tied to it. And it was a collection of things that make me smile.

Before I knew it,the pieces of this mess of a bin started turning into something a lot more manageable. More controlled. Organized. And, incredibly, collectively, they only took up a fraction of the space that they engulfed in dissaray.

It wasn’t lost on me - this obvious irony. I fell deeper in love with the symbolism as I continued to stack, pack, repackage, fold, put away. I took the time to do it right. I didn’t stomp the boxes flat. I took the tape off. Painstakingly. I used my fingers to break the seams. I flattened fully. Took apart the stuck corners. Made it fit. Just how little space CAN I make it take up? The more time I spent on breaking it down, the less space it took up in my recycle bin.

I stopped. And smiled. And repeated in my head - the more TIME I spend breaking it down, the less SPACE it will take up. The more I can fit. The easier it will be. The better I will feel. The nicer, the neater, the lighter… I will be. The recycle bin. It’s me. The recyclable material - all the things that take up space within me. There’s so many of them. Just like the items to be recycled. And similarly too, if you take the time to look closely - to remember - the things are full of things to make you smile. Sometimes they get lost, and they take up too much space because they haven’t been addressed.

Take the time. Break them down. Reduce. Recycle. Re-imagine. You’ll be surprised how much space you really do have.

Blog Post Title Two

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.