J.W.

Where to begin? My sister left yesterday and my closet has stayed very orderly—which is quite an accomplishment because generally the week after houseguests, my closet would have disintegrated into a pile of ‘I don’t know what!?’ My sister was blown away by it all—and asked me to come to her house to teach her! And I received the nicest compliment from her: ‘You have the calmest house with a child that I’ve ever been in. I usually associate a child with chaos, and yours is so calm.’ It really highlighted the progress I’ve made—sometimes it’s hard for us to keep in touch with the baby steps, and to have her say that really made me feel like I’m in a different place now . . . closer to my goal of having my private self match my public self! Regarding my wardrobe . . . well . . . I can’t say that I love getting dressed now. I’m still standing there thinking that I have nothing to wear, BUT there are a few huge differences. It’s made me more mindful of the fact that it’s really just as easy to put on something nice as it is to put on a pair of sweats. Before I felt a sense of hopelessness, like I didn’t know where to begin. Now I feel like I see much more clearly what I don’t have and what I’d like. I’ve always liked the idea of buying a few wonderful pieces, rather than a ton of mediocre pieces, but never felt like I could see clearly enough to make a commitment. The temptation was always to just ‘stretch my dollar’ and get as much as I could with it, hoping that would fill the gaping holes. Now I feel like I can be more patient, that I can look at the process, that I can build upon it over a few birthdays, Christmases, windfalls, etc. . . . I’m thrilled with my shopping list, and I’m actually looking forward to my next shopping experience. I used to LOVE to shop, but I’ve been shopping so long with my ‘old script.’ It wasn’t working anymore and I would get so depressed. I can’t wait to shop with my ‘new script!’ And it was VERY interesting to look back and see how close my ‘closet work’ mirrored the goals I expressed at the beginning. I feel like the next step is to really focus on my money/time organization, so that the riches to support my goals will flow in!

J.W., website designer/mother/wife

This post was written by June