60 Seconds for Time Out Tuesday: Advice to Myself for 2025: A Factory Reset

Hello to you listening in St. Paul, Minnesota!Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories from Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds (and a bit more) for Time Out Tuesday and your host, Diane Wyzga.While I don’t go for Begin Anew resolutions I’ve found that I can do pretty well with a factory reset. Those who have been following me for some years now have heard me seeking the genuine in life, women having a voice in the world, letting go of the unnecessary, and making room for what nourishes in these finite days of a human life.What’s my factory re-set for 2025? Advice to Myself by Louise Erdrich whose writing and wisdom I have coveted since reading Love Medicine in 1984. Perhaps her poem will reset something wild and unexpected in you.    Advice to MyselfLeave the dishes. Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigeratorand an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.Don't even sew on a button.Let the wind have its way, then the earththat invades as dust and then the deadfoaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzlesor the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worrywho uses whose toothbrush or if anythingmatches, at all.Except one word to another. Or a thought.Pursue the authentic—decide firstwhat is authentic,then go after it with all your heart.Your heart, that placeyou don't even think of cleaning out.That closet stuffed with savage mementos.Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teethor worry if we're all eating cereal for dinneragain. Don't answer the telephone, ever,or weep over anything at all that breaks.Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartonsin the refrigerator. Accept new forms of lifeand talk to the deadwho drift in through the screened windows, who collectpatiently on the tops of food jars and books.Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anythingexcept what destroysthe insulation between yourself and your experienceor what pulls down or what strikes at or what shattersthis ruse you call necessity.""Advice to Myself" by Louise Erdrich from Original Fire. © Harper Collins Publishers, 2003. PDF in  Library of CongressYou’re always invited: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, would you subscribe and spread the word with a generous 5-star review and comment - it helps us all - and join us next time!Meanwhile, stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website to:✓ Check out Services I Offer,✓ For a no-obligation conversation about your communication challenges, get in touch with me today✓ Stay current with Diane as “Wyzga on Words” on Substack, LinkedIn and now Pandora RadioStories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicAll content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.