"Oooh, the Pretty Trees!"

After all is said and done, the past weekend was absolutely wonderful.  Only two things went as planned, and everything else was shaken, tossed into the air, and allowed to fall freely.  The result was something beautiful, meaningful, and fulfilling.  We were able to provide sleeping space to friends who suddenly were without, thus we also spent valuable visiting time.  Due to scheduling conflicts which resulted in a lack of participation, a previous engagement was cancelled, leaving us with a free afternoon.  The weekend was wrapped in love, family, friendship, and acceptance.  Despite the continuing lack of sleep, I still feel refreshed and relaxed.

The cliché, "Can't see the forest for the trees," is one that has repeated in my mind several times over the past few months and even comes up in conversation.  I am a detail-oriented person.  I love detail.  I love how all the little pieces fit together to make the big picture.  Sometimes, however, I get so focused on those little details that I forget that those little pieces make up the whole world and that I have to view them collectively.  In essence, I get stuck in the trees.

After nearly 28 years of life, I just recently noticed a pattern to my processes.  If I find something to clean, something that has absolutely no relation to what is going on in my head, I am able to view the forest again.  Creating order in a piece of my physical world helps my mind get out of its repeating loop.  More order in my physical space creates more order in my mental, emotional, and spiritual spaces.  When things are not in order, I feel disjointed, disconnected, overwhelmed, unfocused, somewhat pessimistic, and emotionally chaotic.

In true Virgo fashion, I love to organize and categorize things.  A place for everything and everything in its place, as the saying goes.  Sometimes I get focused on other things and let clutter pile up, but when I go back and remove that clutter, leaving everything neat and orderly, everything in my life improves.  One would think my house would be spotless.  It is certainly not.  However, when I get the urge to clean, I know it is in everyone's best interest if I give in to that urge. 

A couple of bigger projects have been tackled and we've been keeping up with the routine projects fairly well recently.  If I continue to use the energy created from my spiritual, mental, and emotional growth as fuel to get my physical space in order, and that order helps me to grow with fewer internal battles, then not only will I be a better, more stable woman, I will also have a cleaner, less cluttered home, car, and workspace.

I just have to keep reminding myself to look at the forest.

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