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Once in a blue moon. (Or: cleaning out my junk drawer, literally and figuratively.)

Once in awhile, I have an urge to clean out something, a place, a nook, or a cranny that has become tangled, disorganized, or snarled by day to day living.

This year: my kitchen junk drawer.

Before.
Before.

There were: spinny things, packets of Taco Bell mild sauce, lemon zesters, pens, pencils, highlighters, bread warming bricks, olive spoons, crab forks, lobster claw crackers, can openers, slicers, dicers, and garlic presses. Oh, and an Austin Powers-esque peace sign medallion. I dumped it all out, vacuumed out the drawer, (yes, I vacuumed out the drawer), and here is the result:

After.
After.

 My bamboo skewers are all in one place. I know where at least four pairs of scissors are. And, if I want to make corn-on-the-cob and serve over eight people, by golly, I’ve got the corn-cob holder thingabobs. I know where my seafood utensils are (and why do I have over 20 crab forks? For the love of Pete, I will never have that many people over for crab/lobster! There will never be a time when I will need a small fork to dig out crab/lobster meat from the crevices of its exoskeletons! Who am I trying to kid?)

I also found a sense of accomplishment, albeit temporary.

Which leads me to my next thought: Blue Moons.

Do you know why they call a blue moon a blue moon? Well, it’s because there are two full moons in the span of one calendar month.

This makes me think about time.

And space.

And junk drawers.

We all choose to live our lives in either grounded, predictable safe routines or noisy, fluctuating, chaotic change. Both are good, but ultimately, I’m not sure if ‘choice’ is really part of the equation. A blue moon is an arbitrary human label given to time. We decided to demarcate time in this way. The word “moon” gives us the word “month.” The moon is just doing what it’s supposed to do –it has its own phase and cycle, and our telling it it’s twice full in one month is our label, not the moon’s. So, just as I try to change chaos into control, perhaps a little magic and intentionality are the key. I will intentionally try to make this new year a good one, try to stay more positive, less stressed, less worry. The only tools I have are calendar pages to mark the starting line we (humankind) have decided to say ‘ready, set, go!’

Happy New Year everyone, every day!

For more information on where our current calendar comes from, click here.

For more information on what the term “blue moon” means, click on this link.