In Living Clutter!!!! (PART 1)

Friends,

I'm embarking on a new move in my life--a transition, a new or renewed me. I've been feeling the gradual pull away from what was in my life to what is and what is to come. A new me, I feel, is here even as the old me is slow to shed its skin. I am choosing not to tell you the full details of the "new move" but it is only a piece of the overall transformation that is slowly building in my life. I say all of this to share the importance of clearing the clutter of life.

Last weekend, I sorted through clothes, shoes, papers, books, magazines and old journals in an effort to donate or throw out those things that were no longer of use to me. I was overwhelmed by the amount of STUFF I've accumulated since high school and college, which were either stored in boxes in my basement or scattered in my room. "How did I acquire this much stuff?," I kept asking myself as a few papers turned into a multitude. At one point, standing in the middle of a pile of clothes and stacks of paper, I just wanted to throw everything in the trash. The sheer idea of sorting through all my STUFF became more and more frustrating as the weekend ensued. I realized that it would take more than a weekend to clear the clutter from my place.

Clutter. I did a google search on its definition and here's the first three meaning to pop up:

• a confused multitude of things
• fill a space in a disorderly way
• unwanted echoes that interfere with the observation of signals on a radar screen

My takeaway from these definitions are that clutter is a result of our accumulation of too much or a "multitude" of things, which I call STUFF. These things can be both physical, like clothing, shoes or papers, and emotional, like our unresolved feelings or interpretations toward events in our lives. The main characteristic of clutter is that it fills space (too much space, in my case) to the point of confusion, disorder, and unwanted interference in our lives. At times our lives can be so packed with clutter that the idea of digging out and clearing it causes immediate exhaustion and frustration. So what do we do...let the clutter pile up until we have enough energy to deal with it. I know I am guilty of that philosophy. I put off sorting through and organizing my STUFF for so long I didn't even realize how much STUFF I had.

But I realize now that clutter is potentially dangerous for our physical, emotional and spiritual health and vitality, especially as creative people. Think about a time you visited friend's house and when you got to their bedroom it looked like a hurricane came through it--clothes strewn across the floor, bed unmade, and STUFF everywhere. Maybe you didn't even make it to the bedroom before you conclude the house was a wreck or a bio-hazard. How did you feel? Or, better yet, what did you smell? LOL, seriously, clutter can make you feel closed in, uncomfortable, disgusted, and overwhelmed. I'm sure we've all been on the other side of this situation as well (of course, to varying degrees) where a few days (or weeks) went by and your laundry piled up in your room and important papers or mail never got filed (or even opened). I can admit to that. Maybe you kept buying or had enough new clothes that you did not do your laundry until it fit into your busy schedule.

The same can be said in the emotional and spiritual aspects of our lives when we fail to deal with unresolved feelings towards the people and situations in our life. Has there ever been a time when someone did or said something hurtful to you but you choose not to talk about it in order to avoid confrontation? How did holding back your emotions make you feel? I know I've bottled up my emotions in order to keep the peace in a relationship but my heart, or emotional space, could only hold onto so much unresolved feelings before I blew up on the someone. Therefore, in either aspect, physical or emotional, when clutter is not addressed or controlled, it builds.

To close on PART 1 of this message, why is it important to clear clutter? Here are my thoughts:

1. To give our minds, bodies and spirit clarity
2. To restore order and balance in our lives
3. To shift our focus and concentration away from our STUFF and put it on what is truly essential in life--GOD and the love of one another

I am tired of living my life in clutter! Clutter is blocking the creative flow I need for my writing and art. Clutter is making me lose focus and time on what is really important because I've allowed it to pile up so much, without clearing it or processing it, that it overwhelms me. In Part 2, I will talk about how we (you and me) can get the clutter of our lives under control.

My Declaration: I WILL ZAP THE CLUTTER OF MY LIFE THIS YEAR AND FEEL RENEWED!

With Love,

Malaika