The first process of creating a sacred space is to purge the home of items that cause clutter and disorganization. The challenge with purging is number one, time and number two, the illusion that someday one will need that broken espresso machine because someday it will be fixed. That someday never comes, throw it out. I deal with both of those issues constantly. With going to school and working, time is illusive and during the school months I rest rather than purge. And I hate the thought of getting rid of items that I MIGHT use someday. But I need to be honest with myself, I will never use the tray you can put family photos in that has cluttered my bedroom for the past nine months. Yesterday it went into the garage sale pile.
The issue about time, I don't have a solution for. I am a firm believer that things get done when they are suppose. I listen to my intuition. Yesterday, I did purge my bedroom of stacks of paper that had cluttered my home for years. I just happened to move the clutter that were in baskets to different areas of the house. The beginning of summer all the small stacks of paper landed in our bedroom, and became a huge mountain that took a good portion of floor space. I let it sit there all summer, until yesterday. Then I took all the paper and made three piles. The file pile, the recycle pile and the shred pile. Then I spent a good hour shredding. Afterwards I felt much lighter in body, mind and spirit.
For me purging my home of unused items is a spiritual act of cleansing. In the Matrix we are under the illusion the more stuff one has the more important one is. For me collecting stuff can be an addiction where I am trying to fill a void in my own spiritual life. It doesn't work.
Now when I buy things for the home, I have a specific place or plan for the item bought. If the item just looks pretty, but I have no use for it, I won't buy it. My other rule for myself, if I buy an item, I get rid of an item. This also helps reduce clutter.
I'd like to hear your ideas and comments about your own adventures in purging.
In Serenity and Joy
Andrea
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hi Andrea,
I used to hate weeding. It seemed like hot unappreciated work. Now polishing brass on the other hand was a very 'zen' for me. I would get into this meditative state and be rather 'zoned out'. A few months ago I took a different look at weeding. As I pull up weeds I think of the things in my life that I need to remove. I think of pulling up mu stubornness and ripping out the root of ignorance as I go.
I make up a little mantra and say it to myself while I putll weeds now too. Just something to help me remember what it is tha I am truely trying to remove. I use a different one if I am planting. On those occasions I try and think of planting seeds of compassion or some other virtue.
A couple of weeks ago my husband and I planted some bamboo in an area that will bepart of our Goddess Garden. After digging the hole and placing the bamboo in it and carefully but firmly packing dirt around it we both sat down and prayed for the plants long life and thanked the plant for the shade and privacy it would someday give us.
Maybe that would sound corney or silly to some people, but it felt good and as though it was the right thing to do.
Pax Pleromae,
Marsha+
I think it's wonderful you and your husband said a prayer after planting the bamboo plants. In fact you illustrated that when creating a sacred space, it's done with an attitude of joy and a mind in prayer and meditation.
That is what I am finding when I work in my yard, or rearrange furniture or cook, the task can be spiritual when the mind is in a good space.
In Serenity and Joy
Andrea
Post a Comment