by Linda B. Myers
Memory issues — or neurodegenerative diseases if you prefer, which I don’t — aren’t just for us ancients. They are showing up in people still a long way from the moniker Old Growth. There is a theory that our brains get too full to work well, regardless of age. Brains are assaulted daily with garbage as useless as dust bunnies. Too many inputs, too many disputes, too much to see, hear, read, experience, reject, store without the bean going BOINGGG.
So this year, I am working on a brain cleanse. Mine begins by rejecting new stuff before emptying the backlog of bilge. In 2025, you will not hear me ask:
“Really? Tell me more.”
“I’m all ears.”
“You can say that again.”
You will not meet me in classes on how to use ChatGPT or how to organize my closet or convert it into a sound booth. I won’t be taking on lace tatting, or learning to operate a lathe to make my own dinnerware, or upgrading to a phone I will never understand even if I can find it.
For years I’ve dealt with a bedlam of texts with little to say but send money to this politician or that retailer. Policy decision: I am not going to text anymore. You can phone, meet me for coffee, email, pm. If you’re old school, send a letter. All that is ample communication for me. If this is too big a loss for you, then I bid you adieu.
There’s probably a New Year’s Resolution in here, if I cared to find it. All I’m saying it that I am booting out worry about things I can do nothing about. Or that simply don’t matter. I don’t need to be right all the time. I’ve made mistakes and will make more. As a writer, I have already dealt with issues like trying to please everyone. I can’t. You can’t. Give your brain a break and stop attempting hopeless tasks.
A brain cleanse is a set of activities that may help improve brain function. Create room for quiet in your life if that is a pleasure you have lost. But your list is your list, and it doesn’t have to work for me. For instance, I adopted yet another dog which is all about slowing my mind to enjoy something that matters. He’s teaching me about cat chasing at the moment. I’m not yet seeing the joy in that, but napping as soon as you hit the blankets? Not bad. Not bad at all.
See Linda’s collection of Sequim Gazette articles in her newest book, “What Little I Know Now,” available at Pacific Mist, Amazon, and holiday craft shows.
