Stumbling Upon Stuff

Oh, the things you find when you’re looking for something else.

For yesterday’s post, I had wanted to conclude with a photograph of one of my first Thanksgiving meals—as a child. It was a simple picture my dad had snapped of my sister and me, flanking our mother as we took our seats for dinner. Everything looked so strangely small: the turkey on the kitchen table in our tiny Cape Cod home—a place so small, it didn’t even have a dining room.

Small, yes. But special. It not only evoked fond memories of times past, together as family, but it has become a reminder of a time when we seemed to be much more satisfied with so much less.

For months, I had saved that photograph to insert with a Thanksgiving post here—you know, kept it in that special place where I was sure to find it. In the rush of running around, preparing for The Big Meal With Company, wouldn’t you know I’d lose that token of what life was like in a simpler time.

Still, as my husband likes to point out, there may be a reason for a loss like that. He always cautions to pay attention to what you find while you are looking for what you lost. Along the way, in your search for that missing object, you may uncover something else that needed to be brought to your attention.

I suppose that is one way to say, “Enjoy the journey, not just the destination.” And here is what I found on my “journey” to locate that missing picture: document upon document set aside to help me complete my D.A.R. application.

Yes, the D.A.R. application. You only thought I finished that project when I last blogged about it. But there were a few details standing between me and Job Done. Most of them had to do with those petty requirements of documentation. After the loss of my aunt last year, though, in going through all her belongings, I happened—piece by piece, of course—to locate a couple of just about every document I needed. Including some evidence to help me navigate those tricky name changes done without benefit of legal verification—you know, the kind when a person just up and decides to change his or her name. Just like that. Try constructing a paper trail on a scenario like that.

Finding these papers prompts me to look at this upcoming month as time for a year’s-end round-up. Seems like there are always projects that get started, but for whatever reason, are then put on hold—and never revisited. The D.A.R. project is one that I would not like to keep in perpetual suspension, and now that I have what I need to proceed, it’s as good a time as any to complete the task.

Perhaps entering into this holiday season is the best time for clean-up efforts like this. Just looking at the last two days and how much time and effort went into activities other than my usual research helps me realize that steady progress on research is just not likely to happen in a month like December. Finishing up these shorter tasks may be just the ticket to gaining a sense of accomplishment without launching a new—and likely, messy—project. It would be much more satisfying to close out the year, knowing I closed the book on a research project that still needed to be completed. And, if I can pull this off right, it sure would clean the slate for a fresh start in the New Year.

“But it’s only November,” you say? Don’t blink. You might just trip and fall into 2015 without realizing it.