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Mind map by Paul Foreman and link to article “De-clutter your
life”
http://blog.iqmatrix.com/de-clutter-your-life
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I have closets, cabinets and shelves stuffed with fabrics, threads,
yarns, paints, craft paper. I tell friends, my entire home is an art studio.
You can find a creative work underway in almost every room of my home. The
mixed-media arts are a magnet for all sorts of items, some of which most people
would discard. The artist in me knows even an empty box or piece of wood can be
repurposed for one of my nicho shrine projects.
But the art and craft supplies are not alone in taking
space in my home. When my husband and I bought our home 21 years ago, it took
us several years to purchase furniture and fill the rooms. As a young couple
with two young children we never imagined that our once spacious home would be
filled with an excess of accumulated possessions we hold on to. It is easy for
this excess to clutter our living spaces and such clutter is not conducive to a
healthy home or work space.
We have fallen prey to overindulgence and the trap of
consumerism. When we first got married 27 years ago I made the ornaments for
our first Christmas tree. The day after Christmas we started a tradition of
going to the half-off sales to buy decorations for future Christmases. We have
since amassed boxes full that sit in our attic 11 months of the year. We have
accumulated so much that we started putting up a second tree.
Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home appealed to everyone to
consider how we are caring for our environment. In his appeal, he even
addressed what he calls the “ecology of daily life,” the setting in which we
live our lives.
In the section “Joy and Peace,” he notes Christian
spirituality “encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable
of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.” He said, “We need to take up an ancient lesson, found in
different religious traditions and also in the Bible. It is the conviction that
“less is more”. A constant flood of new consumer goods can baffle the heart and
prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment.”
My husband asked me for my Christmas list in November.
The truth is I don’t need anything. What I need is to let go. I am embarrassed
by my weakness for sales, the excess we’ve accumulated, and my failure to purge
what I do not need.
The Holy Father’s words resonate as I commit myself to
simplify and create a healthy space to work and to live. He said, “Christian spirituality proposes a growth marked
by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. It is a return to that
simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be
grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually
detached from what we possess… This implies avoiding the dynamic of dominion
and the mere accumulation of pleasures.”
My father died in August this year, and my siblings and I
have the task now to go through what he left behind. It pains me to see how
much he held on to after my mother’s death 23 years ago. He still had boxes of
her costume jewelry. The truth is I still have boxes of some of her craft
items. I call them “las cajitas de posibilidades” (boxes of
possibilities).
I believe my father would have lived his last years with
less stress if he had gotten rid of roomfuls of furniture and possessions he no
longer needed.
As I continue on my pilgrimage, I want to change my pack
rat ways and let go by purging myself of the excess in my life. I realize too,
it’s about making time to organize and make decisions on what stays and what
goes; what are the essentials. Sometimes we have to evaluate how much value we
assign to possessions. After all, when
we die we’re not taking anything with us. One of my biggest fears is the
clutter I will leave behind when I die.
Susan V. Vogt in her book “Blessed by Less: Clearing Your
Life of Clutter by Living Lightly” gives some practical tips to what she calls
“living lightly.” She started her journey of letting go one Lent when she
decided to give away an item a day. This Advent leading into Christmas, I plan
to do the same.
We are each called to be good stewards. As December moves
us into a new year, I look forward to the possibilities that living lightly
will create, including making more space to focus on what is important starting
with spiritual growth. Already I see the difference with the small steps we have
taken in our office where a cleaner, uncluttered environment allows us room to
concentrate on the work before us.
Moving forward, this prayer from St. Ignatius Loyola
offers us some focus on letting go of not just material possessions but of
other tendencies as well.
Take
Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire
will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord,
I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me
Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.
(Originally published
in December 2015 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)
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