control your hoard!

According to Frost and Steketee’s Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things,

Hoarders need to convince themselves of 3 things in order to let go of stuff:

1) to know that the item won’t be wasted

2) to know that it goes to a good home

3) to know that the opportunity the item promised is over

Now which of those do we have any real control over?

No wonder we keep so much stuff!

It takes so much energy to make the decision to get rid

of something when we feel such responsibility toward it.

But with practice it can happen.

photo from here

integration

“Simplicity does not mean

getting rid of all of your possessions,

but rather integrating them

into your life’s purpose.”

- Mary Gregory

Hawaiian Botanical Gardens photo

Lose Weight

"Atlas wasn't forced to hold up the world.

He was convinced that if he didn't,

the world would fall."

Mark Nepo

There is a difference between

bearing one another's burdens

and taking on another's pain

that just isn't yours to carry.

So go ahead.

Put down what you've been holding up.

Your shoulders and back will thank you.



too many coats

"The original, shimmering self gets buried so deep

that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all.

Instead we live out of all the other selves,

which we are constantly putting on and taking off

like coats and hats against the world’s weather"

F. Buechner, Telling Secrets

and now that Spring has officially arrived,

what better time for a clearing out of those

"other selves"

Greed

"The store was closed

so I went home and hugged what I own."

Brooks Palmer

OK, so this little girl isn't exactly embracing this concept,

but perhaps, like the rest of us,

 she can learn to at least loosen her grasp

on her excess of material gods (oops, I meant goods.)

Less Clutter in 2009

The next time you consider what to do with all those items that are cluttering up your closet, consider this....

"The bread you do not use
is the bread of the hungry.

The garment hanging in your
wardrobe is the garment of
the person who is naked.

The shoes you do not wear

are the shoes of the one who is barefoot.

The money you keep locked away
is the money of the poor.

The acts of charity you do not perform
are the injustices you commit."

St. Basil the Great


It's a new year -
may we endeavor to live more simple lives in 2009.

Love,
Roberta

Sacred Space?

"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it's not all mixed up."--A.A. Milne

Someone once said that clutter begins in the mind and ends up on the floor - or the desk as the case may be! From this picture I can see that the owner does seem to have a system of piling items - I'm assuming that the important items are near the top? And I bet s/he could find what s/he needed at a moment's notice! ok....maybe a week's notice :)

Some of you may know that I engage in some decluttering counseling which is similar to professional organizing but with more emphasis on the spiritual side of getting rid of what holds us back from spiritual growth. Does their surrounding space draw the person closer to the Divine? Or does it somehow serve as a barrier to relationship? An ancient Hasidic saying expresses this much better than I can - "Where there is too much, something is missing."

When I see a picture like this one my heart skips a beat with anticipation for I know that in the process of getting to the bottom of this pile I will discover how the owner functions, thinks, and feels about themselves and their relationship with God and others and that is always exciting territory to explore! The only question for me would be, when do we begin?