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42 - A year in the life...

Douglas Adams introduced us to Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Slartibartfast, Marvin the Paranoid Android, to name a few. My lasting memory of the wonderful series is 42 - the answer to life, the universe, and everything. As I celebrated becoming 42 years old, I thought that I should have the answers. It wasn't until a couple of months later that I realised I had come up with my own answers - answers that form a way of living that is right for me.

I don't claim to know it all for everyone - what I have discovered, is that this is right for me, it works for me. It is a little sad that it came about in the way that it did, but perhaps that is what it took for me to find this way.

So what is my answer? I don't think that there are 42 aspects, but there are several different strands. The first is - Use It Up. This came about after my mum died. She was diagnosed as having PSP in November 2015. At first it was thought that she had Parkinson's, but it wasn't responding to Parkinson's drugs, and didn't have the same features. In the last couple of years of her life, I saw her being able to do less and less, and in her final year she could watch TV and listen to the radio - and little else. She left behind fabric, yarn, sewing accessories, books, lace-making equipment. Some of her lace-making pillows have a piece of lace in progress on them. I realised that I have a lot of stuff - and that some things I've been saving for best - perfumes, body lotions, body butters, toiletries, fabrics, threads, notebooks. It would be a shame to not use things that people have bought for me, and to leave someone else to sort it all out. 

One of the problems of saving things for best, is that some things end up being spoiled - some things have a best before date. Toiletries and cosmetics are some of these things
Have you noticed these symbols on the back of toiletries? The top one is the PAO - or Period After Opening - telling you  the useful lifetime of the product.

Why save things for a special occasion? Such times are usually few and far between, and it is okay to pamper yourself everyday. Some people do this already, but I'm not one for putting on make-up everyday and pampering myself in this way. So the idea is - Use It Up - and the same goes for my crafting materials. I bought the threads and fabric to use in projects, so I should use them - and taking on The Splendid Sampler challenge has allowed me to do this, and use some of my smallest pieces, and use some of my favourite fabrics, that I had been saving for a special project. It works for clothes as well - and especially the pretty underwear - and that reminds me of a story I read in Chicken Soup for the Soul - about a woman who had some lovely underwear that she saved for best - but she never got to wear it - except at her funeral.

What else have I learned? Carpe diem - seize the day, as we don't know what will happen - we don't know how much time we have. If there is something you want to do, then do it - don't wait for the perfect moment, as it will never arrive. If you want to write a book - start doing it, you want to use up your craft supplies - get going. The more you talk about doing it, the less likely it is that you will ever do it.
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