Small Success: Tackling the "Yuck" Stack

I don't know if anyone else has a "Yuck" stack, but I do. It's my stack of papers that usually require I spend half an hour to fill out one form, and then another two hours to get the documents necessary to finish it. It's the stack of Oh-I-So-Do-Not-Want-To-Deal-with-stuff. When the Yuck stack starts to take over a second bag...it's time to just sit and do it.

So I made a list of the yuck stack. I'm doing one at a time. Yuck stacks are kind of like an examination of conscience, showing me all the things I'm ignoring as much as I can until they reach critical mass. The thing is, sin, like the Yuck stack, only stockpiles, but becomes surprisingly less odious once it is faced. (Today, I got rid of three things in the Yuck stack. Granted, they weren't huge things, there are still easily 7 to 8 more things in the Yuck stack, but it's a start.) Rather like deciding to go to confession, it's a start, but not yet fully what needs to be done.

It's hard to feel grateful when there is so much left to attack. But I know, not allowing myself to celebrate the small successes of getting rid of three forms, is a way of robing myself of joy. It's ill-advised. I could feel my own self growing discouraged. Fortunately, I had to write Small Success for this week, a good way to remind me, small victories matter. Each pound lost. Each book read. Each paper filed. Each little inch of progress, just like all the Hail Mary's in a rosary, pile up.

So I checked off the boxes of the Yuck pile list I'd done. Form for high school, form for confirmation, form for yearbook. Form for band concert --put in the schedule. Phone the orthodontist for another appointment. Write a check for cap and gown for the senior. I'd done more than I expected. The process of tackling it, had removed the log jam of tackling it at all. I still have some serious paperwork ahead of me, but it at least is down to half a bag!

We are 22 days from Easter. It's at the time when winter and the Lenten resolution starts to wear thin. This "thinness" is good. It is the beginnings of growth, the loosening of whatever it is, from the soul. The soil of the soul is being loosened up, made softer for God's grace to grow and bloom. So hang in there. The goal is Easter. It's not that far away. I'm going to go try to get a bit more off this table, and maybe hurry up the Spring outside and inside.

This week, I...

tackled the Yuck pile.
didn't go to the grocery store after the Sunday shop until next Sunday. It's hard in a family of ten not to be tempted to just scoot in to get a few more things mid way through the week.
made it to adoration with my husband and daughter who is preparing for confirmation.

Now it's your turn, to share your small successes from the past week.

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