Marie Kondo-ing Life
Wow. What a week with orange skies, #nofilter. Between COVID and smoke, we hope everyone on the West Coast is especially healthy, safe, and well.
Food for Thought
In her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo shows people how to declutter and organize space. The first step is to discard, from the least to most sentimental stuff.
Tidying up is a form of reinvention, but it’s funny how easy it is to associate reinvention with addition versus subtraction. In our parents’ houses, we’ve stored twelve grades of schoolwork, including papers, tests, and projects. They’re identity-building artifacts that affirm what we’re good at, how far we’ve come, and how much potential we can unlock. They’re good things, but kept without examination, the boxes get in the way of redecorating, refurnishing, and remodeling.
The hardest part about reinvention, or transition, is letting go, especially the good stuff that has shaped our identities—experiences, relationships, careers, and/or lifestyles. It’s important to honor the role those things have played in our lives, but we can’t grow without freeing ourselves to receive new things. Having more of the good stuff from the past is just chasing more of the same. And after a while, the same leads to diminishing returns.
As we transition into job searching, we’re deciding what to discard—we’ve let go of leases and jobs, but now it’s time to prune the formative, yet superfluous. Having traveled and lived overseas, Jen is wrestling with roots over mobility. As an operator in the age of COVID, Jay is relinquishing his propensity to plan too much.
It’s tough to let go, but as Marie Kondo says, the secret is to thank the things that have served their purpose and put them aside so we can receive the new and better cherish what we keep.
Shoutouts
🎂 Happy birthday, to Papa Lee! You’ve been a wonderful blessing and role model, and we wish you good health, love, and laughter for many more years together! We love you!
👶🏻 Congratulations to Katrina and Stephen for their upcoming third wheel! We’re super excited for another addition to the Lee clan, and we hope you store up on sleep over the next few months!
Better Together
Feel like you need someone to talk to, or to just send good vibes your way? Whatever way you’re feeling, we encourage you to fill out our weekly connection card (anonymously, if you prefer) so we can keep you and your loved ones in our thoughts and prayers. We read every submission, and reach out to connect when it’s appropriate. Or you can feel free to reach out to us directly by replying to this email (or texting one of us, or whatever medium you prefer). We can’t wait to hear from you!
Soundtrack
"Orange Colored Sky" by Nat King Cole
When smoke snuffs out the sun, it’s easier to see light when it bursts through darkness. It’s been a bizarre week, but as this song suggests, we hope the unusual reveals blessings too.
This song, “Let Go” is from Garden State, a film about confronting the past and forging ahead. Like our lives, gardens are for pruning and growing, and we hope this offers encouragement for everyone in transition.
So let go
And jump in
Oh well whatcha waiting for
It's all right
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
For the full list of songs included in our newsletters, click here.
As always, please keep in touch! We’re so lucky to have seen so many of you in the months since we’ve returned, and we hope to keep seeing even more of you with each passing week. If you’re in the Los Angeles area and are open to a socially distant hangout, just holler! And, don’t hesitate to shoot us emails, texts, chats, or video invitations—you’re all the best part of our days!
Love,
Jen & Jay