Nine weeks later, I’m thrilled to witness a transformation of my once named paper layers- now, a highly ordered and efficient filing system at my home office that reflects four years of my survivor’s mission work at the kitchen table (writing) and in the world (speaking, teaching workshops, and leading retreats). Here begins a strong […]
The spiritual-emotional benefits of getting paperwork in order are real. Papers marching to the tune of determined intentions are forming meaning ne’er before seen, like the beauty of synchronized swimmers… In these new forms, I am beginning to see the patterns of values, service, community feedback, and improvements integrated, which I had known were there […]
Today we have completed nine of eighteen 3-hour organizing sessions in this “Paper Layers Excavation” project phase of my larger “Harmony at Home” estate-management program started January 15 of this year (2014). Last week we joyfully reached a project milestone that involved home personal paper files (personal interests, letters, family photos, 2012 wedding vendor contracts, […]
Using a kitchen table for active sorting, and two futons for category classification (work and home), the paper-trail-of-tears began to tell its story. As is a common outcome of taking-time-for-review, I saw with a new appreciation and overview the many help-the-caregivers-services I piloted over four years. I took the time to group the service-related paperwork […]
Please bear with me as I focus on the topic: organizational development. For the last seven years I have chosen not to earn a generous salary as a user-experience design consultant for big businesses in the Boston area. Since 2010, I’ve become an unpaid founder and CEO of this social enterprise, Marymac Missions, which is […]
“Paper Layers” is the second phase of the larger “Harmony at Home” project (started in January 2014 in response to the contents of my family home being moved to my current home). For now, we’ve shut the door on the material goods, and we are focusing only on papers. I had a thirty-day respite in […]
A friend at church on Sunday asked me how I was doing. She asked how my aunt was doing (her husband passed in September). I shared the yang (many positives and energizers) and the yin (the negatives and energy-sappers). The biggest yin at this time is the estate-management project that feels unending… like rowing the […]
My father’s one-year death anniversary came (5/24) and went with me still deep in the trenches of estate-management. I was grateful that a friend mentioned a local workshop on the topic, “Writing Your Grief and Loss.” It seemed a perfect event for me given that the one-year anniversary had been a difficult few weeks. I […]
Dear Friends, I attended the MA/NH Alzheimer’s Association “Map Through the Maze: Conference for Professionals” this past Wednesday, 5/21. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done since my mom passed away from Frontotemporal Degeneration almost six years ago. The event was held in Marlboro, MA, where I worked as a professional user-experience design […]
The one-year anniversary of my father’s death is later this month. I’m not sure how I will mark the day or if I will do anything special. This past weekend in his upstate New York hometown I attended the funeral of one of his best friends who was like an uncle in my life. When […]
