Organization

When I was still working at school I taught a class called SOS. It was an acronym for 'Self Advocacy, Organization, & Social Skills' These three qualities are sorely needed by all students but for the most part are not taught in the classroom. Rather , they are not taught as part of the curriculum. Most teachers do try to instill organization skills, and are constantly reiterating the acceptable social behavior of society. In our school the students are graded for their internalization of these skills.

Organization was a challenge for some more than others. I spent many hours of my life helping my students organize. We worked on orgaanizing note books, desks, lockers, back packs, math problems, all written work, homework, you name it ,we organized it! We would even assign them to organize their bedroom at home and have an organized place to study, have supplies at hand, and plenty of time to complete homework.

There was one person in the whole scheme of things that definitely did not internalize the concept of life being easier when you are organized. That person would be me! I spend so much of my life trying to find things. I am always searching for some item that I've lost. Doc used to 'preach' to me that old saw, " A place for everything and everything in its place." Ha! Part of the time I was searching for things, the things being sought were his. He was fond of saying that I didn't have to worry about my purse being stolen because even I could not find it, so the thief would not be up to the chalenge either.

I gave up sewing because I could sit at the sewing machine for hours and never leave the chair but I would lose my scissors, thread, a piece of the pattern, etc. etc. One time though, a few years ago I had the sewing machine set up down in the downstairs bedroom and also had the ironing board set up too. We were working on a quilt for Kathy, I had a stitch remover on the table among the items that I needed, I finally had a need for the stitch remover and I searched
all over the table, on the floor, under the bed, on the dresser top, I exhaused every flat surface and area that I was near, but no stitch remover. I spent a good portion of an hour looking before I gave up and decided that a being from some other realm had spirited it away. The next day I did find it fused to the iron. How did it get there? One of life's little mysteries.

I have lost or misplaced every possession that I own and some that I do not own. All searches are time consumming. Think of what I could do if I did not have to spend hours of my life looking for things. I could probably have had time to learn to play the violin, use a hoola-hoop, designed floral gardens in my back yard, learned to speak French, or Spanish, taken Karate lessons, learned to swim, learned to cut and paste, and the list goes on! A vast amount of time that could have been used for furthering my knowledge went to waste.

Just the week before last I lost my car keys. I drove the car to church and home again and when I went to use the car again, I had no keys. Fortunately, I have an extra set so I used those but continued to search and to engage St. Anthony in the quest. He has been my constant source of ideas for where to look and always seems to find things in the absolute last place that I look! I looked in places that didn't even make sense...closet shelf, under the beds, beside the dryer, in all of the dresser drawers, clothes hamper, all pants pockets, I even looked in my jean's jacket pocket , despite the fact that it has been 90 degrees plus for the past 11 days. On Wednesday Andrea and Kadon came and I offered a reward to Kadon if he could find the keys. He looked under the seats of the car, slid his hand down behind the back seat and covered as much territory as he could looking for them, to no avail. Three days! I was ready to give up and call off the search.

Kadon got in the car when it was time for them to go and Andrea came around to get in her side of the car and suddenly I saw her jumping up and down and cheering! She dangled the keys from her hands and shouted, I found them, I found them! What a relief. They were all wet with dew and if they had been there much longer the Dixie Clipper would have whomped them. My car was in the carport and I had never even walked in the grass by the driveway so how did they get there? Doc used to chide me when I was looking for my keys(it happened often) by saying, " You might as well throw the keys out in the back yard when you get out of the car! Your chances of finding them would be just as good as they are when you put them in your purse or where ever!"

I think we all know how my keys got there!!! Nooo-neee-noo-noo. Ciao.