Whoops. As predicted, I had a few more busy days of working hard towards a late-night deadline on Monday, May 4th. And then I just went into recovery mode for a minute or two. Early bedtimes, passive time watching different series finales on DVR. But nothing as active or mentally demanding as writing—either here, on Will4Will, or in my pen-and-paper journal.

I mean, I was still writing for work. But once I got to the end of the formal workday, I was all ready to be lazy during my evenings.

And that’s how 9 days have passed between blog-posts here.

I suppose I should feel a tiny bit of guilt about my laziness, but I’m really cool with it. I was lucky enough to have a few different chances to connect with different friend circles this weekend, and that sort of immediate community is just as important as the more amorphous sense of community I experience by sending these words out into the universe.

I’m also proud of myself that I’ve made some really good progress going through several bags of old paper clutter this weekend. Yes, it’s a recurrent challenge, but I’m still proud of myself for facing up to it.

My best trick for getting through these house cleaning/decluttering tasks is to crank up my #AlphabetGroove playlist. If it’s a sitting job, like folding laundry—or weeding through bags and bags of paper clutter—I’ll pipe my playlist through the AppleTV and have it play one of my photo slide-shows on the screen while I plug away at whatever-task-I’m-on.

So that’s what I’ve done for stretches yesterday and today. After being tucked in these bags and boxes for months (or years), there was very little paper that needed to be saved. Still, it’s important to go through the bags systematically, to sort out the recyclable paper from all the things that need to be shredded first.

And, even more importantly, to rescue those bits of paper that I want to keep.

A lot of those “bits of paper” are cards and love notes Mr. Mezzo has given to me. He’ll take any occasion to do so: formal holidays, moments of celebration, moments I’m in need of a pick-me-up. Sometimes when I’m on a work trip, I’ll unpack my suitcase and find a stack of cards, dated so I have one to open every day till I come home again. Or sometimes I’ll turn my calendar page and he’ll have taped a note onto the next month at some point or other.

I love receiving these notes. It’s such a tangible expression of Mr. Mezzo’s level of care for me. I feel so very loved and held whenever another card shows up, whether it’s directly handed to me or tucked somewhere creatively sneaky for me to find.

And that grateful feeling I get, card by card, just become so magnified throughout this weekend as I kept coming across these cards amongst the old bills and catalogs. Affection. Comfort. Compliments. Thanking me for something -or-other.

I’ve not gone a good job of notating the date or circumstances in which I received different cards, so that’s all a bit mysterious. Which makes one of today’s finds that much more intriguing in its utter on-pointness for COVID times.

I’m going to keep these cards for the foreseeable future. But in addition to tucking them into a shoebox on the bookshelf, I’m also going to turn them into another slide-show for the AppleTV. That way, I can enjoy this happy feeling of being loved and held whenever I’m listening to music in the family room.

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Image credits:

• Tempus Fugit. Needpix. Public domain.
• Uncertain times. Photo taken by the author, subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.