First I ate all the holidays' leftover food and was sick with "the grip" for a day or two. The unhealthy contents of the leftovers are among many I will no loner be eating.
Then I purged my closets of ALL the clothes which no longer serve who I am today and are uncomfortable. I loved everything I put in the two huge bags which got placed in the second hand drop off up on the corner.
Sweaters which I love, too heavy for even the coldest weather in Florida, were boxed and mailed north.
Books - storage bins full - will find their way to the library and from there probably will be tossed anyway. I thought about opening a new age book store or browsing room, and may yet. In the meantime, they are in storage. All of them, except maybe Saviors of God by Nikos Katsinzakis and a couple of others out of print, are available on line and any information I need is easily googled.
My home itself is almost streamlined, but has a way to go to eliminate doubles and triples. A yard sale should solve that problem. I even cancelled the tv service because I don't need it at all.
I do have one of all I need to accommodate increasing age related ailings and failings.
Almost everything is up to date or repaired. Going up and down the stairs will someday be a challenge, but not yet, so for now it serves its purposes - more privacy and good exercise.
Outside, the grounds are now manageable, all that I can not do myself, or cause discomfort to maintain, has been replaced, mostly by Zen spots. I can afford to pay someone to mow the lawn and trim the trees.
I must admit, that all the physical changes I have made were driven by Psyche, rather than a rational, thought out list of what is needed in order to move into the future, continuing this journey to Self.
Psyche's methodology consists of an emerging thought, triggered by a message from something I was reading or watching or a conversation. A conscious awareness grows within me related to a desire to make a similar change. For example, a friend said she had just cleared her closets. I thought about my own closets and how I had considered that so many times recently. I considered the pros and cons before resolving to clean out my closets.
In the same spirit of shedding old baggage, I saw a movie in which friendships ended because they were toxic to this woman who had a new lease on life. Finally, I encountered the presence of mold growing in the closets. By this motivating awareness, I chose a time and soon all the clothes which represented selves I no longer was or needed, were in bags and out of my life.
I have all I need to stand present to life as it is now in 2017. None of it really material, I understand the meaning of physical surroundings in my life. I know I could live without any of what I have accumulated. What I may need is available in many different forms.
More and more I am drawn to that which sustains the presence of the Divine and my ability to continue the journey in this realm.
Most beautiful in this place, in these clothes I have kept, is the possibility of acknowledging the highest good and understanding the real motivation for the action of others. The grievous suffering we experience in our disappointment with and inability to control outcomes burns to ashes eventually.
The blessings bestowed in grieving's place, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, calls out for our leadership in systems transformation, of ourselves and of society.
All is gone which no longer serves a real need. A new vision begins to form, a new strategy, a new approach to bringing into being a new way, as Gandhi put it, to BE the change you want to see.
I am not perfect. I slip and fall into an obsolete self often. I get to feeling lonely in this place whuch is not the well worn past. But, I am determined to be relevant and so I continue the journey.
Are you willing to be the change you want to see alive in the world today?
No comments:
Post a Comment