![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nosmallthing.net\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/clock-radio-225x300.jpg\")
Almost every December, I purge.<\/p>\nAlmost every December, I purge.<\/p>\n
I shred papers. I delete emails. I give away books, sometimes to friends, sometimes to those \u201cLittle Library\u201d boxes, looking like bird feeders, that you\u2019ll see along sidewalks in residential neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll throw away items bought after seeing late night TV advertisements. (There have been only a few of these purchases, but I\u2019m always ashamed of the ones I\u2019ve made, blaming the transactions on sleep deprivation).<\/p>\n
At these times, I recognize my psyche is filled with the thought that I need to get rid of stuff in order to make room in my life for new things.<\/p>\n
What I experienced last week was different. One morning, I looked at my old (and I mean Reagan administration era \u201cold\u201d) GE clock radio.<\/p>\n
Its dated and dusty appearance was surpassed as a point of irritation only by its sound quality. The FM radio was awful and the alarm sound, not quite as loud as sirens going off in a London tube station during the Blitz, was even worse.<\/p>\n
All of a sudden, I was convinced it was time for it to go.<\/p>\n
I tried before, but I could not go through with cutting the cord.\u00a0 Boyfriends, at different times in my life, bought me new clock radios. I set them up on my nightstand, but I couldn\u2019t use them.<\/p>\n
They were complicated. They had functions that I didn\u2019t need and required too high of a learning curve to motivate me to try.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know why learning new technology is so challenging for me, but it is. I had a friend program my thermostat when I got a new furnace. I don\u2019t know how to program my cell phone for blue tooth.<\/p>\n
I figured out how to take taxi cabs in Buenos Aires and how to haggle in a Shanghai market. Using Dog Whisperer<\/em><\/strong>-like psychology, there have been times when I\u2019ve even been able to loosen my dog\u2019s stubborn jaw as it clenched something she found on the street but clearly shouldn\u2019t eat.<\/p>\n But It\u2019s been traumatic for me to try to set up a new clock radio.<\/p>\n I had to ask myself why. Is it purely discomfort dealing with something electronic, something where I can\u2019t just use my communications skills to prevail?<\/p>\n Am I afraid of making a mistake? What\u2019s the worst thing that could happen? I over-sleep on yet another day of my pandemic influenced, very unstructured, stay-at-home life?<\/p>\n Or maybe I \u2018m afraid my alarm would go off the wrong time, disturbing my upstairs or downstairs neighbors with the mellifluous tones of a WFMT DJ\u2019s description of Stravinsky?<\/p>\n I had to ask myself, \u201cDo I harbor some sort of unacknowledged resentment towards change?\u201d I\u2019m certainly not happy with change where there\u2019s no obvious benefit for me.<\/p>\n Like many people, I suppose, I\u2019m not keen on some aspects of change, but I have embraced change in other ways.<\/p>\n I think what I really have issues with is that my learning style doesn\u2019t seem to be important to anyone except ME. I am capable of learning new things, I just don\u2019t want to be forced to watch a video and assumed that\u2019s all I need.<\/p>\n While some people may rave that anything they want to know is viewable on YouTube,\u00a0 I need to PERFORM an operation under supervision.\u00a0 I need to have a guide who can answer questions.<\/p>\n I went to Target and bought a very minimally featured clock radio for only ten bucks. I placed it next to my faux walnut clock radio. I followed instructions and set the time and alarm, and decided I wouldn\u2019t throw out Old Faithful until I saw that everything was working.<\/p>\n I started thinking about who I knew that could teach me how to perform other technical things I\u2019ve convinced myself not to try.<\/p>\n Realizing that the message \u201ctime to go,\u201d is about releasing a limiting belief, not about saying good-bye to an object, is no small thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Almost every December, I purge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[459,457,458,460],"class_list":["post-4943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clock-radio","tag-dog-whisperer","tag-little-library","tag-stravinsky","grateful-dozen-noticing-small-things","grateful-dozen-something-new"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n