Sweep your front step, including under your welcome mat.

I was listening to The Today Show last week and they were talking about Mary Oliver, an 83-year old Pulitzer Prize winning poet, with a career that spanned six decades, and who recently died after battling Lymphoma. One of her poems, entitled Sometimes, contained very simple instructions for life.

'Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.'

How profound...and how beautifully related to organizing this is.

1) Pay attention: This reminds us to be mindful. To truly listen when someone is speaking. To notice when someone looks nervous, joyful, embarrassed, or fearful. To realize when someone got a new haircut or is wearing a new necklace. It means we're thinking about the steps we're taking when organizing the kitchen, writing a message on a greeting card, or handling a report for work. It encourages us to 'be' in the moment, rather than someplace in the past or future.

2. Be astonished: This prompts us to think big. It tells us to awaken our minds, hearts, and souls and be enthusiastic about the new buds of spring, a young child's first words, or a book that is so good that we feel like we're escaping on a wonderful adventure. It tells us to be excited for someone who is ready to begin a new job and to be appreciative when someone performs a random act of kindness. It tells us to be impressed when someone shares an idea or tip that makes life just a little bit better, easier, or happier. It reminds us to be proud of our own accomplishments, big and small.

3. Tell about it: This emphasizes the importance of connecting with others, sharing thoughts and ideas that we come up with, as well as those that we see, read or hear about. It means that we love ourselves enough to know that what is in our hearts, minds, and souls is important enough to communicate, rather than bottling it up within us. It means that we know we are blessed to have a voice.

I hadn't heard about Mary Oliver until her name was mentioned on that radio program, but I looked her up and discovered a good deal of her poetry has to do with walks she has taken in the woods, along with the idea of looking at ourselves as a wonderful part of something so much bigger.

I will leave you to ponder one of her most famous poems entitled, The Summer Day. Here goes:

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth
instead of up and down--

who is gazing around with her
enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms
and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed,
how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

P.S. If you want more happiness in your heart, be sure you're adding a bunch of 'happiness actions' into your life. You'll find those happiness actions in my resource, Happy for Life!

"Thank you so much for your excellent organizing calendar. It is so useful. i really like your tips in your newsletter. You are awesome, Maria."
-- Deepak Kumar, Winterhaven, Florida

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-- Thanks! Maria

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___ 1. Do today's task on my March Monthly Organizing Checklist. The March 26 TO DO focuses on your home's rugs and carpets. Visit GetOrganizedNow.com to access my March Monthly Organizing Checklist.

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'Don't let a single day go by without being astonished by something.'
-- Marty Rubin

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And remember...there's no better time to get organized, than to Get Organized Now!

Warmly,

Maria Gracia
Get Organized Now!
getorganizednow.com

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