365 Project: Lessons and Wisdom Learned at the Coalface

Speed-reading "just this one."

Jake, the Collie, finds a spot to rest his weary head.

On Sunday, I started this project—closing down my Amazon books business, which I had from 2006 for a couple of intensive years, and a couple of desultory years.

And today is Thursday, and here are the pictures—not a lot of progress made, huh?

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But internally, where all that really matters happens, progress has been made.

I’ve worked for 4 days like a Benedictine, balancing ora et labora, work and prayer, thought and creativity.

I’ve always been enamoured by the Benedictine ideal of balance--especially when it’s theoretical. When one actually has to do it: BAH-humbug, the Labora part is highly overrated!! I said to my soul in disgust.

* * *

 Of course, I don’t really need to do this. But you see, during the years of the business, I came across so many lovely art books, gardening books, poetry books, Christian books, nature, photography, history, biography, literature, children’s books, which I would have loved to keep. But I was generating £2000 a month to pay for two girls’ school fees, and so I put them up for sale, saying I would buy them when I had time to read them.

And I was feeling down in mouth sorting through these boxes, givers/keepers because you see what I really want to do is pray, read and contemplate scripture, blog, write, garden, and run. Not sort books.

Then I read this blog by Michael Hyatt which says your mental state and attitude is highly dependent on the language you use. Don’t say “I have to,” Hyatt advises say, “I get to.”

And so I said to myself, with great truth, and immediately felt happier,

I get to sort through 240 boxes of 50 books each, books I have already sifted and discarded the junk from, and keep whatever I want! How great the love the Father hath given that I get to keep the best of 240 boxes of art, poetry, literature, Christian, nature, history, biography, gardening, children’s books, travel and photography books. Saying this made me feel a lot happier.

* * *

However, it’s Thursday, and from Sunday to Wednesday, I had barely cleared 10 percent of the books. As you can verify if you look at Sunday's pictures and today's.

I have always been a book-crazy girl. It’s hard for me to see a book without picking it, and speed-reading it, or tearing the heart out of it, sometimes in minutes, devouring its main points.

Here’s a definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So I realized that at the rate I was going I was not going to finish sorting by Sunday, when our massive eBay auction was going to close. (We put the books on eBay because I needed an end date to motivate me to sort rapidly.)

·      * *

Desperate prayer for wisdom. I am so slow because I keep reading the blurbs, bios, and flick-reading the books with intriguing plots, or non-fiction on subjects I know nothing of. It’s like setting an alcoholic to work in a liquour store, or a chocoholic in a chocolaterie.

And so, prayer sharpening the mind, as it always does, I come to a solution. Ask Roy to pre-sort the books into probable givers, probably keepers, and in-between. Discipline myself to do no more than scan the givers.

And so, I’ve made loads of progress today. And I long to be done by Sunday night! Stay tuned! :)