Moving places or houses is a very difficult time. Even it you want to move, it’s still stressful. The one big plus I always enjoy is the purge that comes with packing up. You can’t put it off. It has to be done. Having made a major move at least five times in the last twenty years has made me very good at throwing out. I love the feeling of freedom that comes with getting rid of stuff. Especially if I’m white knuckling an object. It’s not because I want it. I don’t but I can’t let it go. Overcoming and dropping it in a donation bag or garbage bag, it makes you feel like you accomplished something. You feel a lot lighter.
If you know me, you’re asking yourself, What’s wrong with this picture? Because my house is cluttered. I am a messy person. The problem is two fold. One; children. Need I say more?
Second, my major issue is I can’t find a home for things. You’d think it was simple but my brain quits. So I pile. BUT I know my way around my piles. I continually declutter hoping to get to the point where there is so much space that I will be able to find homes for necessary stuff. Wishful thinking, I know. A girl can dream.
Today I drove a trunk load to one of the thrift stores. As I passed them onto the worker, that stuff no longer had any hold on me. It made me think about how I’ve been decluttering myself over the last few years. We don’t always think about it this way but we get cluttered up too. Occasionally, we need to purge the garbage out.
Everyone talks about the schedule. Make time to breathe. I totally agree. If we are scheduling ourselves so much, we might want to ask ourself one question? Well, maybe two? Why? What are we running from? A very busy schedule doesn’t afford you time to sit down and reflect. It just keeps you in a whirlwind. It’s our choice to be in it or not. Only we can stop the crazy.
Some other clutter has been around for ages. Hurts and wounds that we’ve shoved down or aside because we didn’t think they were important enough to warrant time to sift through them and understand them. We try to ignore them but they persistently come up to the surface. Would it be worth the effort and time it takes to sort through those matters?
Fear. It’s like dust, it just settles on everything and makes everyone miserable. We may have to sweep out a few fears to see what’s underneath it all. Several inches of dust can hide a lot. So can several fears. Sweep them out, take a look at what’s underneath and stomp on anything that’s looks like a bug! It’ll make you feel better. It really will.
One of the things I’m looking at is pressure and expectations. Mainly my own. They are totally unrealistic and are paralyzing. I can’t move for all the stuff! The result: NOTHING! There is no productivity because I’m too busy worried about producing! Somewhere along the line I made up some totally stupid rules for myself. They don’t work at all. Maybe you have too. Life becomes a burden.
As I sat quiet, I remembered that there is someone I can go to with all this. I’ve been ignoring Him too lately. “Lord, help me just to sit near you today. What do you want me to do?” What I really needed was some rest. Not sleep but time to enjoy something. Not produce. Not clean. (Thank goodness!). To Enjoy.
Earlier I’d read a blog by Michael Hyatt about putting more art back in our lives. It resonated with me. I like to create. I needed something more than writing. I pulled out my paints.
Once we start to declutter, we need to fill those spaces with some good stuff. Things that makes us happy. Brings life. Why do we get our kids involved in sports, music, dance and art only to crush that desire as adults? I don’t get it. Who do you respect more, an adult who is busy or an adult who took the time to do something he loved? In a lot of our worlds, the word lazy would come to mind. Busy is good. Anything else is laziness. But is it?
After I painted, I did some of the other things on my day’s To Do List. Instead of being paralyzed by all my expectations and fear of failure, I was free to go and do my work. God created for six days. After each day, He said it was good.
Taking time to create a little every day whether it’s a meal, baking some treats, playing music or dancing, whatever you enjoy. It’s always good. And it always produces more. Abundant. Life.