My house has become a little disorganized lately, because I’ve had about ten busy days in a row, and it’s not easy to schedule time to clean up. So there are some clean dishes in the dishwater, dirty dishes in the sink, and a nest of papers on the dining room table. There are also stacks of things on the floor of the library which don’t have permanent homes yet, and my desk is currently covered in student papers I haven’t graded yet.

I don’t really mind, though. Even though my space is disorganized right now, I can see the underlying order with my mind’s eye. Today I grabbed everything from the dining room table that needed to be filed, and filed it. The space was more orderly already.

There is, if you will, an implicate underlying order to my space now, and I can see where and how things are out of place.

I’m not using my 43 Folders as much as I thought I would. Some folders, like January and March, are getting a lot of use. However, I’m not handling as much paper as I used to, other than student work. Most of my stuff comes in e-mail form these days.

Since I’m on an Apple computer, I’ve been going around to people, asking if I can take a photograph of them, and put their picture in my Address Book. I like this functionality, especially for the state-wide Commission on which I’m currently serving. I see these folks once a month, and I forget from month to month who they are (although since September some faces are starting to emerge as real people). Having them in my address book, with faces, is a great way of figuring out who they are and from whereI know them. I’m even doing this with students (and eventually, I hope, with parents), as a way of keeping track of alumni after they leave school.

All of this is, in a sense, gearing up for Apple’s iPhone, which I’ve already decided that I want/need. My career seems to be moving in the direction of thinking up cool ideas for education, and trying to implement technology, spirit/ritual and community networking… I’m not sure what to say about that yet, because it’s just beginning to come to me.

I’ve got a deadline for house organization already: June. Apparently I’m going to be organizing/hosting/running a conference on Stress, resiliency and creativity in students, and I think this is going to be my mandate, somehow. So I feel like I have to have my space, my house, under control before I can think about doing that.

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