Day 117, November 19, 2016 @2:01 pm

I’m fortifying myself with a cup of rose hip tea before descending into the depths of the basement.  I am a chicken shit, scared of jacks in the boxes and things that go bump in the night.  I’m hoping this sweet amber elixir will infuse me with courage.  I gathered the hips at the lake at the end of summer.  The tea is very subtle and delicious.  I can taste the sunshine, spruce pine and the fresh breeze on my tongue.  I’m feeling the softening of anxiety in the drop of my shoulders, the smoothing of the crease between my brows.  I will be A ok.

I did small, small this morning.  I rid one small box.  It is not easy on a grey November day to stare into the debris of your life.  It is never easy but it has to be done.  Those scary Jacks in the box do not go away.  They never go away on their own.  I have to chase them out with a broom.  My goal is to clear them for the New Year.  It is Chinese custom to sweep the house clean for the coming year.  You do it before, never on.  It’s bad luck.  You might sweep out the good with the bad.

My tea is finished.  I am ready.