Culling Life

When you walk into Wegman’s, your first view is often the produce. Everything is lined up perfectly and often with wax coated shine says take me home I am beautiful. There are no flaws, bruises, blemishes much like when I lived and worked in Pittsford, the expression was sunny and 72 degrees in downtown Pittsford. This week, I did my annual Foodlink volunteer for MLK Day and found that if I looked more closely, there are no cans, bottles, and merchandise in the store with any flaws. Foodlink gets them. Anything that doesn’t look like it should live in a perfect world, gets sent out of the store where volunteers sort and then do the final unusable separations. It appeared to me that only 3 of the 11 bins of food made it to the discard and the rest will go on to make a happy meal for some family who will hardly notice the scotch tape on the label or the slight dent in the rim of the bottom of the can.
I do volunteer work at the Abundance Food Coop and I often cull the vegetables. While no one will buy produce that is old, wilted, moldy etc., folks that buy organic farm grown items are not expecting the “perfect” and would be upset to find any alterations such as shine or wax. Same Same but Different.
Last night I started my first Photoshop Class. When I came in and took my seat I was the second last person in and fortunately could get a seat in the small cramped room that allowed my hearing ear to the instructor. A woman complained that she thought there would be only five in the class, which was really welcoming to this late comer. The instructor said that while the ad had said max of 5, there was an interest and they have the room and she likes a big class since each student asks different questions and the class will be even better. The class is on a Mac so everything takes a little adjustment for me and I ended up trashing the week1 folder in the first hour. I must admit that if I only took the first class, I learned a great deal about getting my photos into a good workspace. I took stuff out, like a row of watermelons and put stuff in like more apples in a basket and removed water spots etc.. I am not planning on taking off my age spots in a close up, but, the water spots, telephone lines etc. will be gone.
As I had my last snack for the day, I watched some mindless Hollywood show and saw a very attractive woman talking about having 10 procedures on her body to improve her looks. One was an augmentation where she “grew” to an F size and was hoping to return to get herself to an H. Having always felt that a D inhibited my golf swing and often wished for less and I pondered why? Having lived with someone with a post mastectomy implant, they sure don’t feel the same.
I have taken a few days off from putting my thoughts out because I spent some energy getting more in touch with my authentic self. This means really looking at the entire package – I don’t plan my money well and have ended up annually in January very short of funds. I need to remember the difference between lonely and solitude, which I will write about shortly. I am a kind, honest, giving person and have energy to give back. However, I have been trying to give to those that are not interested and need to seek out places for me to feel respected, welcome and my services wanted.
So, in taking time to cull my life, I feel great and excited about who I am, where I am and the directions I am going. It is a new decade for the calendar and the bonny timeline as I march forward in the 71st year. Some of my cans are dented and just need to be positioned where they are wanted. Some of my patterns need a little airbrushing and some need to be discarded. But most of me is just me... so on with the show.