It’s my midweek check in on living mindful. This week’s challenge from “How to Train a Wild Elephant” was ‘leave no trace.’
I selected my office at work as the room to practice this activity. At the end of the first day, I left it pristine. I got rid of some papers that had piled up for months. I filed or recycled depending on the content. I lined up my post-its. I put my pens in the drawer. I emptied my coffee mug. I straightened the sweater on the back of my chair. The area looked going-on-vacation clean. The benefit was the cleaning guy dusted. He won’t disrupt an area that has a work project in process. With my work area neatly tucked, he added his own level of tidy.
In the discovery section of the book, the lesson learned for this activity is to take care of it now. Wipe up the spill. Pick up the towel. Dust off the book. The idea is if we wait, things pile up and overwhelm us. Our initial reaction of ‘I’ll do it later‘ is lazy and promotes that ongoing mindset. A willingness to ‘deal with it now‘ also initiates an ongoing spirit of action.
My own discovery was a sense of being in a borrowed space. My friend Roger is very cognizant of his carbon footprint. I’m less as environmentally conscious as Rog but this activity gave me a similar sense of temporariness. Leaving my office in an organized state was welcoming the next inhabitant. If I got hit by the proverbial bus (and it would probably be #77 if it happens), my office looks welcoming right now. It looks manageable. Someone could sit down and take over. My life here is limited I must thrive in every moment.
“Final Words: First practice leaving no traces. Then practice leaving things better than you found it.”