Small Happinesses

One of the ways that I have been getting rid of (sharing/passing on/letting go of) some of the stuff in my life is through Bookcrossing. I first read about Bookcrossing in a magazine about (what else?) books. I joined several years ago and am "indigo136." Since we're making an effort to take evening walks in the 100 Acre Park a couple blocks north of our house, where the dog can run around off-leash, I've been trying to remember to take a book or two with me every evening to leave for someone to find.

I like the idea of turning the world into a free library of sorts. Only a small percentage of the books I've given away this way, through a "Wild Release," have been "caught." I don't know what's happened to the rest of them - maybe someone found each one and just didn't bother to go online and say so. Maybe coffee shop employees found them and trashed them. It's a mystery, for the most part.

No mystery this past weekend, though. Two of the three books I released were "caught" - and one of the catchers wrote a longer-than-average paragraph about her experience. And then joined Bookcrossing. And donated cash (that's how come "bison76" has those little angel wings").

Love it!

Here's the "journal" for my former copy of Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith.

2 journalers for this copy...

	Journal Entry 1 by indigo136 from Bozeman, Montana USA on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 I read most of this series several years ago, but forgot I owned them. Figured I should share.
	Journal Entry 2 by indigo136 at 100 Acre Park in Bozeman, Montana USA on Sunday, May 13, 2012 Released 2 days ago (5/13/2012 1:00 AM UTC) at 100 Acre Park in Bozeman, Montana USA WILD RELEASE NOTES: On a bench.
	Journal Entry 3 by bison76 at Bozeman, Montana USA on Monday, May 14, 2012 We were Bozeman visiting our son and taking an after dinner walk. I am an avid reader and usually read books on the Nook or iPad. I was thinking that my iPad had little charge left and since I forgot the charger I was going to have to go get another charger so I could read in the motel or buy a book. Surprise! There was a book on the bench in the park and it was one I hadn't read, although I have read my in the series. I love this idea of leaving books and when I finish this one tonight I will be leaving it on a bench that was placed in Missoula in honor of a beloved member of my book group who passed on...... Thank you!

Spring Cleaning: better late than never, and maybe not even late

Spring in Montana, taken Thursdsay morning from the front porch. While still in my jammies.

I'm finally catching the spring-cleaning bug. Some years I remain immune, but this year, not so much. I thought perhaps I had escaped, since spring was finally in the air, but then it snowed several inches this week, so it feels like I'm getting a do-over for the beginning of the season.
 So far I have managed to clean out exactly one (of two) junk drawers in the kitchen, and I spent about ninety minutes organizing in my office at church. I do, however, have designs on considerably larger undertakings: the entire master bedroom, the garage, the front-room closet which is full-to-bursting with all kinds of amazing things.
The church rummage sale was a couple of weeks ago, and I'd managed to keep my new year's goal and put a thing a day in the rummage sale box. That helped, but there's still plenty to do. And plenty to pass on to someone who could use it more than we do. There is a new "giveaway" box in the bedroom. So far the hubs has made the only contributions.
Part of my hope for spring cleaning isn't just physical, but mental, too. I'm feeling a need for some new patterns of thought and organizing time. Not necessarily that much more structure, but new. And I'm hoping to get on top of some digital clutter, too. As I write this, my personal email account has 2,676 new emails in it, not counting the 23 which hotmail has identified as junk. The total number of emails in my inbox, which either have not been read or not been put in a folder, is 5,085 messages. Surely that's one or two emails more than I need.



Mother Nature's mixed-messages