Deal With It

The decluttering continues.

Three days, three rooms.  This is what we have to donate or sell from just those rooms: 

Not to mention what has already been tossed or recycled.

The thing is, when I first looked at those rooms...I didn't see all of this.  I knew that they needed cleaning out, but never would I have imagined that all of this lied beneath the only slightly untidy appearance.

When I started opening drawers and boxes in the kids' rooms, I discovered long-forgotten items.  At the time they had been placed in those drawers and boxes, I couldn't decide what to do with them.  They were too precious, too important, or could perhaps be too useful someday.  And now - now I am faced again with the decision.

And THAT.  That is what is draining about this entire process.  Because I am being called to take responsibility, to acknowledge each moment of this process what is, and to make a conscious decision to take act based off of that knowledge.

I could simply re-box the items, put the forgotten toys back in the bin, hope the one-size-too-small clothes hold out just a bit longer.  Life is going on around those things.

It is the same with the inner clutter - mine and yours.  Life would go on around those things that we choose to keep boxed up.  We don't have to open our creative nature in order to pay the bills.  We don't have to peer into the workings of our body in order to survive.  But for me, and I'd guess for most of you reading this blog, life isn't just about survival and bills.

How we do one thing is how we do everything.

I am being called into a new way of living.  I am asking myself to take responsibility for those things that my body and mind could ignore but that my soul refuses to.  (The soul always wishes to acknowledge and honor itself.)

It is unbelievably painful to make the decision to let go of a sentimental item that sees the light of day only when we decide to clean...and otherwise gets forgotten in the dark and dust.  It is SO tediuous going through the box of crayons and cars, deciding one-by-one what gets kept and what gets donated.

No one ever said this was - or should be - easy.

Again, how we do one thing is how we do everything.  

I can choose to not make the decision right now to display or donate or use an item...just like I will choose to not make the decision right now to display my authentic self in public

nor donate the art supplies I claim make me an artist

nor use my body in healthy ways as it starts to succumb to lethargy.

We may not see the clutter when we look at our minds or our lives.  They may look only slightly untidy.  And yet, when we take it upon ourselves to open a box or two...to meditate and see a thought or two....to get on the yoga mat and feel a muscle or two....we realize just how much is there.

In this awareness, we then have a choice to make - to deal with it or box it back up.

I'm heading off of the computer and back to opening a few boxes.  You?

Namaste.