Handbag or Garbage Bag?


Hello my esteemed blogeress',

Today was lovely. I was off from work, got a decent nap this morning, had lunch with my sister and son, then went to Marshall's and splurged on a funky handbag I never thought I would carry. The colors are outrageous. I'll have to post a pic.

Also, while shopping in CVS, they had a sale on Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara (pictured above)....buy one get one free. Who can resist that? Not I. I must testify, that this stuff is the BUSINESS! It smells too floral, but hey. The lashes look fab. No curling needed. No clumps. I am already hooked. Go get some today.

I have also come to the conclusion that I am my own Kryptonite sometimes. I hold myself to ridiculous standards, and when I can't meet them, I go insane. At least I can admit it. Now to change it? That's the real challenge. I thought if I attempted to rectify big things in my life, that all the little things would fall into place. Not so, at least not for me. I have learned over the past few weeks, that if I address the little things, I have less big things to tackle. How's that for a wisdom nugget?

This may seem odd, but last week I took a night off from work to collect myself. I was feeling very overwhelmed and disorganized. Now- I'm sure some of you can identify that when your handbag looks like the county dump inside, it is a red flag that you are approaching wicked, emotional heifer status. Every time I looked, it seemed to be getting fatter and fatter. I had so many receipts and snippets of paper that I couldn't find my money or other necessary things. I Couldn't even get the bag to close. I must have looked like a travelling pack rat. It dawned on me, that I was in dire need of help when I went to the bank with my husband. When the banker asked for my ID, I had to unload my trunk on his desk, whilst things like pantyliners, and crumpled up tissues, and empty on-the-go baby formula packets popped out onto his desk. I know my husband was mortified.

How did it get this bad? Not allowing myself enough time to do anything. Not caring. Sleep deprivation. Stress. Ironically, the worse it got, the more stressed I became.

So, anyway (yes there is more)-

On my special night off, I spent THREE HOURS cleaning my trough of a handbag. I organized everything in it, then determined what got trashed and what was needed. I found about $10 worth of coin on the bottom, about $20 in singles all wrinkled up. After I was done, I tackled my wallet. What a task that was. I didn't realize how many unnecessary things were jammed in there.

I am happy to report, that my beautiful, favorite handbag has gone back to it's normal size, my wallet has assumed it's slim silhouette, and I can locate everything with ease. It has to be at least 5 lbs lighter. My whole world seems more organized. Everything has order; home, car, work.

I now see that my handbag, is life central for me. It's the nerve center of my daily activities. Since I am constantly on the go, it is always in use for one thing or another. It never occurred to me that it was so critical to my own well-being.

3 Birds Chirpin':



Kris said...

I need to clean out mine too.

Completely and randomly off the subject.. I remember emailing you off of one of Organica's posts awhile back and for some reason you popped into my mind the other day. I don't know why, but I did and felt the need to stop by. I'm glad I found your site again!

Sketched Soul said...

As-salaamu'alaykum wa Rahmatu Llahi wa Barakatuhu my dearest sister,

Oooh, you have a lovely blog!

Thanks for the info on Stiletto Mascara (what an interesting name).. I'll give it a try, since I need to buy a new one.

Love Farhana

Anonymous said...

Salams, iMuslimah. I was sure that I had visited your blog before (did you have a black background when you started off?) but wasn't sure whether I had commented or not.

Have skimmed through a lot of your archives, but will be back later inshallah to read your recent posts.

In the meantime, I'm subscribing.

Ramadhan Kareem and Eid mubarak