Matters of Importance
What’s important to you?
I feel like this is a question that doesn’t come up as much as it should, but one I always find myself asking. I’m not talking about matters of importance to society or to your family. What matters to you, as an individual, in particular? Do the things you consider important weave the very fabric of your happiness? Are they unachievable goals that contribute to your depression? Were they generational concerns handed down to you by your parents?
As you think about this—I can’t stress this enough—things you may consider important, may not be to other people. And that’s totally fine. Okay? Cool. I may not care about your collection of hotel stationary from 1867, but I definitely respect that it’s important to you.
So I try to think about what’s important to me and what’s going to help me not just trudge through the day, but make it a good day (I realized recently that reading politics first thing in the morning rarely constitutes the foundation of a good day for me.) Besides making sure I can provide [shelter, food, clothing, etc] for myself and my cat, Potato, I recognized that in order for me to be in the right headspace to complete my tasks for the day, I needed to begin with a quiet morning in a cozy home environment. It sets the tone for my entire day. It’s what smoothes out the rough edges. That shit is important. Some of it is about the practical things (i.e furniture, color-palette, lighting), but I’ve come to find that so much of it actually has to do more with routine and home habits.
I wake up, make my bed, start the coffee, and feed Potato his breakfast. I turn on some instrumental music at the lowest possible volume, light some incense, grab my coffee, and settle into my reading chair to pick up where I left off in whatever book I’m currently reading—while all of this is happening my phone stays on Do Not Disturb. This is how I begin 99% of my days. May sound boring, but it’s my routine and it’s important to me.
How do you move through your day? Are you paying attention to the important things, large and small? Sometimes the bigger stuff starts with the little things. If it’s important for you to have a calming space in which to retreat from the outside world, then your daily habits will either hinder or help you achieve your desired atmosphere. Which rooms in your house do you favor?
Some of my other favorite routines and habits are conducted in the kitchen—the most important room in many people’s homes (I am no exception.) I keep an organized pantry/fridge/freezer so I have a visual inventory of all the staple ingredients I use regularly. I cook and bake. A lot. I keep a notepad on the fridge so I can write down any items I’ve depleted and need to pick up during my next grocery run, I label and date pertinent containers, I keep frequently-used items at eye level within an easy reach, and in the colder months I keep my electric kettle going practically all day so I can have a cup of tea (earl grey, peppermint, and pu’erh are my faves) whenever the mood strikes me—which is usually. Hot beverages are small things, but they’re important to me. They scream cozy environment and if that’s my larger goal then I needed to give tea and coffee the important real estate they deserve in my home, so I created a hot drink area complete with mugs, teas, coffee beans, kettle, and other accoutrement for easy access at all times.
So if you’re learning that your home surroundings maybe aren’t nurturing your matters of importance as much as you’d like them to, then we should do something about that. I’ll help.
I’m much better at organizing spaces than I am my own thoughts, I swear.
Speaking of routine—time to feed the cat again and refill my tea. Thanks for reading. Until next time.
{Author’s note: Upon further consideration, your collection of hotel stationary from 1867 would be very important to me because that shit is cooooooool.}