No Joy

It was my plan today to go to Matanzas Creek winery where they have beautiful lavender fields, but instead spent a good portion of the day in my dark, windowless closet looking for something that would spark joy. Somehow that didn't seem like such a good metric for going through piles of clothes stuffed randomly and distinctly untidily on shelves....what I found myself thinking about was how I would redesign my closet! A waist high surface on which to fold thing, more drawers and fewer shelves would definitely be included. 

Our final and best renovation on our Berkeley house involved turning a 'sleeping porch', which had served Tim as his bedroom the entire time he was growing up there, into a master bathroom and closet. They were wonderful...we spared no expense and got exactly what we wanted. Then we moved...I love our new house, but I miss that master suite

Back to my smaller, darker Santa Rosa closet, I resumed my tidying with considerably less enthusiasm than when I embarked on the project yesterday....

Here's a sweater I spent untold hours knitting when I was laid up with my foot in a cast. I like the sweater, but the memory of two months on the couch definitely does not spark joy.

Here's a t-shirt with a drawing of a bicycle on it done by a disabled person at the Center for Creative Living in Oakland. It's got holes in it which have mysteriously appeared in a number of shirts, some quite new. THAT doesn't spark joy either, but I don't want throw away the shirt. I think the holes might be caused by the car seat belt, but I can't be sure. Should I mend them?

Here's a shirt that that I had forgotten, lost behind an untidy pile. No joy there because I already repurposed gave away,  threw away  the trousers that I usually wore with it.

I have a lot of clothes that I get home and wonder why on earth I bought them. I got sidetracked redesigning them in various ways, but rarely did that spark joy. It would be really great to know exactly what that certain thing is that makes you love wearing a certain item of clothing, which is obviously why you have saved it, sometimes past it's point of being good for anything but a rag. It would save a lot of money and probably spark more joy....

It's difficult for me to thank an item of clothing on which I spent a small fortune and which, upon further scrutiny, I have decided makes me look like a bag lady....

As I  was putting a pile of grubby looking clothes into the washing machine, I realized that the lavender growing along the front of the house and covered with bees is looking very nice when seen from the laundry room window....

Now THAT sparks joy....