I’m currently engaged in a thorough reorganization of my “exploratorio,” the provisional name for my studio/office/library/room of my own that we added to the northeast corner of our home back in 1995. This is the first time I’ve taken/made the time to deliberately arrange my main working, thinking, writing, etc. space since I moved in. I’m also collaborating with my wife Andrea in doing the same thing for the whole house.
After reviewing and perusing a number of books on simplifying, organizing, streamlining, etc., I wound up with a few that I checked out of the library. The one that really clicked with us was Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern. The book wasn’t available, so I got the video. One important aspect of her method is that it honors our idiosyncratic ways of categorizing and doing. There’s still a good bit of work to be done, and times when I and we sit and scratch our heads for a while. Still, I’m following her basic method and it’s working (with modifications and adaptations, which she encourages).

So, since the streamlining project is the main focus, I’m not reading or writing much just now. The following is another excerpt from my collection of quotes and observations that I’ve named “Worthwhile Words:”


You see, we are all ordinary. But a master, rather than condemning himself for his "ordinariness", will embrace it and use it as a foundation for building the extraordinary. Rather than using it as an excuse for inactivity, he will use it as a vehicle for correcting, which is essential in the process of attaining mastery. You must be able to correct yourself without invalidating or condemning yourself, to accept results and improve upon them. Correct, don't protect. Correction is essential to power and mastery.

-Stewart Emery


Answers to complex questions should end with semicolons, not exclamation points. --Daniel N. Robinson (Great Ideas of Psychology lectures)

“Does it matter where you sail if you’re uncomfortable on your ship?”
--Dave Fournet 6.19.03

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.
I'd relax, I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances.

--Nadine Stair,
85 years old.

(This passage is actually longer, but I’ll just post those first few lines) I’m planning to put the whole collection of quotes on my web site, probably after Thanksgiving.)