Spring cleaning in December

I spent the last three days pushing and hauling paper. Literally. The documents on my desk had piled up to the point that I had taken to holding office in the library. There just wasn't space enough for the notebook and my elbows on my desk. And yes, there were books and binders on the shelves and on top of cabinets. And on the floor.

I wanted to deal with the clutter before the year ends. My officemates wryly opined that it's primarily to make room for new and more clutter in 2008 (at least it'll be new clutter, I shot back).

So I now have two reams of paper that are labeled "scratch/used" and a foot-high stack that had been sorted and categorized and will be turned over to clutter somebody else's desk.(To the bewildered look of people who found mounds of paper on their desk, I soothingly said "It's the law of the universe, matter can not be created nor destroyed. It can only be redistributed")

My desk is clean (sort of). I can actually see wood now where it was just the white of paper showing. But I'm still at the library.

The view here is better (And the table is bigger! Other people ask for more space; I only ask for more tabletop on which to spread my stuff). I keep casting longing looks at Samal and the mountains of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.

It's the last working day of the year and I obviously don't want to work. I want to be away.

I want to board a bus, any bus and get off at the furthest destination, only to board another and head off somewhere else. I want to leave the cellphones behind and be out of touch. There's nothing like a hurtling bus to experience the momentariness of being "here." At most one can only give a nod to a "here" before it becomes a "there." Everything is too flitting to form an attachment to; and one keeps moving on; eyes peeled for what's next without being too anxious about getting to a "there." If you trust movement, you know you'll get there, wherever and whatever it might be.

My life is due for some spring cleaning. Um, it can be argued that my idiom is off. After all, I'm in a land where there are only two seasons (wet and wetter, or dry and drier, depending on whether it's el nino or la nina) and spring isn't one of them.

I digress. The point is I want to unclutter. So I can be away.

Comments

[jana]

you'll miss diane if ul go somewhere there, over there... bitaw! have a break, have a kitkat nalang gud!
love u mags. muahh!

[Ritz]

Hmmm... I'm sooo happy for you that you have a Diane na pala ... kwento naman jan ... basta kahit anong bus ang sakyan ninyo, pls try to pass by our way ok?
Mwahs!

[Mags]

Er, Ritz, Diane as in Diane Lane... i still owe you a response to your messages...