Clump #42:  Buy new folders for piles of sheet music and instruction manuals.

The gratitude I felt today for the men who pick up our recycling was boundless.   I was almost afraid to look when I approached the curb this afternoon … but all ten bags of paper were gone!  Woo-hoo!

Now that I have done the machete-wielding job, the sorting and fine scalpel work remains.  The sheet music below is one example.   My family is a musical bunch.  I am the designated audience member. Through the years we have amassed a collection of sheet music that wanders hither and yon.  This is not usually a big problem until someone needs one piece in particular.  Then the sorting through paper piles, scratching of heads, and tearing of hair ensues.

Every holiday season my husband, son, and two daughters sing a quartet of Coventry Carol for the Christmas music program at our Quaker meeting.  And every year no one can find the sheet music. Somehow, by hook or by crook, the music is reprinted from some source at the last minute.   This is not a peaceful, holiday scene.  The resulting performance is always one that brings tears to the eyes.  Now I will be able to easily locate the sheet music and can contribute to the effort, not to mention the general holiday cheer.

I went to Target today and bought two expanding files.  I was thinking it would be great to find one with musical notes on it.  Aren’t these whole notes?

The other big bunch of paper I needed to corral was a stack of instruction manuals for various appliances and other purchases.  Again, not something you need very often, but when you really need one of them, SO annoying not to know where in heaven’s name it is.

And now this pile’s new home — voila:

Today’s crossword puzzle included a quote by Shakti Gawain: “Problems are messages.”  So simple.  So profound.  One of the little slips of paper I just taped in my idea book was from a fortune cookie: “No problem leaves you where you found it.”  I’m going to do some deep thinking about the messages contained in my problems. Something about self-sabotage as a misguided form of protection.  But today, I feel like I am finally breaking free from a paper chrysalis.