I have a very tidy bachelor friend named Christopher T. Wood. He loves to use his full name, and also loves to say his phone number on every single voicemail he leaves (8 years now). That can be 3 messages a month or 3 messages a day (if he's got interesting info or is just driving by your house). I tell him that I and 99% of the people he calls already have his number plugged into our phones, and if NOT, they have it visually on the screen (he doesn't block his number, he's not rude or self important) - yet, he rattles it off every single time, as the hardest working actor of a certain age should.
The other day I called back that number I have on 47 voicemails, just to chat. I was commending him on being such a tidy bachelor, and he said, "I had a bad habit of filling the sink with dishes, (instead of putting them in the dishwasher every time) then hand washing and leaving them in the drainer. My sister called it 'Visual Noise.'"
I loved that. It sums up what I've been preaching (to myself) for years. Now, Noise is differently defined for everyone. Some "noise" most people disagree on; different music, political yapping, talk radio, tap dancing, drum circles and the like. The last one there makes me want to pull my hair out, but a talented drummer on a street corner makes me want to dance - it's a very fine line. Other noises, many of us can agree on, like what is happening outside my window at this very moment, a circular saw cutting wood planks in my yard. Nail gun to follow. I am mustering through, probably because as a city dweller of 28 years, I've learned to work around it. Also, in LA, we have low-flying Police Helicopters about 200 days of the year, and the obligatory emergency sirens everyday. Dog howls to follow. NY, SF & LA, it's just how it is. The omnipresent Audible Noise. Think about living in it daily, (as you already may & millions do) then think about escaping it by coming home, to your nest, your sanctuary, your respite from the world, and it looks like this:
It doesn't have to. I know I sound like a broken record (can we still use that idiom? It has actually made it into "Urban Dictionary" :-/ )
It doesn't have to look like this and you don't have to feel like this. These photos may be extreme, but they are real. And more common than you'd think. There's no need to feel shame. But there is a need to feel better, about yourself and your surroundings. It's why you shower, it's why you dress well when you need to. You do that for the world around you; why, why, why would you not do that for your self?
You can do it on your own, or I can help you. However,
if you need some more convincing, here's what a UCLA study has found. Also in this article are great tips for getting started on your own!
So, after a day of sirens, horns, garbage trucks, street cleaners, helicopters, construction, traffic and barking/howling dogs . . .
wouldn't you like to come home to this instead?
Wouldn't this feel good? It felt good for me to do it, and it felt good for my clients when I left - they've all told me so & I believe them :)
As Always, Thanks for reading!
