Poison

Happy Wednesday,

We are officially, half way through another week. Happy hump day. How are you enjoying this beautiful summer evening? I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a little cooler weather. Maybe keep it around 100. Still hot, but more doable then the 110+.

I have to be honest, I didn’t get much done today, other than the usual. I’ve felt so exhausted. The only things I got done were a little reading, a couple loads of laundry, I made dinner. Oh, and I got to visit with a friend. The one I told you all about last week. The one who was in the hospital. All your prayers worked. Thank you so much.

She’s home, however, she told me today she was felling a bit off. Hopefully her doctor appointment tomorrow will find her some more answers to what’s going on. She looked a little peak-ed today, but seemed to enjoy the summer breeze as we sat out on her patio enjoying a glass of ice-tea. We had a nice visit. I’m learning that our life courses are so similar. We’ve had many of the same experiences, and we never knew each other until about a year ago. You’d like her. She’s witty. Funny. Kind. Compassionate and she’s a true friend. I’m blessed to have her in my life.

Today as I sat with her on her patio, I was thinking how relaxing it was. She has her patio and home done so nicely. Everything has it’s place. I need to get my home back to that state. I haven’t had to much energy to tackle some of the tasks around here, however, I’m having a home inspection on Tuesday morning, so that’s going to be my drive to organize, at least a couple of the out of control areas.

In the back of my mind I’m thinking what I can donate, toss or simply give away to friends.

While I enjoy my crafting, the time has come to rethink my stuff. I realize I have way to much. I know I’ve mentioned this to you recently, but I do. When stuff begins to take over, it’s time to declutter because it’s no longer bringing me joy. Instead, it’s bringing me anxiety.

I saw this amazing quote a week or so ago and it fits so seamlessly with this topic of needing to get rid of things and how it can actually be a type of poison.

“What is poison? -Anything beyond what we need is poison. It can be power, laziness, food, ego, ambition,, vanity, fear, anger or whatever.”-Shaman.

How true are those words? Powerful, right? I mean, while clutter isn’t an actual poison as far as being a chemical of sorts, it is something that can harm our overall health.

Have you ever seen the show Hoarders? Now that’s extreme clutter and just nasty, but I’m not here to judge those that hoard. While watching many episodes of Hoarders, I came to realize, it’s a true sickness. Intensive therapy is needed for most of the hoarders on the show and not just during the actual clean up process, it’s a long time after process of therapy.

I’ll be 56 in a couple of days and I’m closer to the other side of life than to it’s beginning. My kids don’t want my stuff. They don’t want to spend days upon days going through my belongings. My sons are very clear that all they want from me is something to remember me by. They both have quilts that I made them, but they also want something that meant something to me. The rest, they’ll give away or donate.

I think sometimes when we start collecting things we reason that our children or family members will want it once we pass on, but generally, that’s simply not the case.

I used to do pack outs on homes where someone passed on, or I’d pack out homes after a fire or flood damage and much of the time, family members wanted things tossed. More and more stuff would be tossed into dumpsters then kept. Oh sure, when I’d pack out a home due to fire or water, those people would keep most of their stuff, but it was the ones who had passed away, their families didn’t want much.

The quote above also mentioned power, laziness, food, ego, ambition,, vanity, fear, anger or whatever.

Poison is anything that holds power or control over us. Power itself can be a poison. Look at some of the different politicians. Power sure does make them not so attractive at times. Laziness is a poison. Being a lazy person doesn’t allow us to follow our dreams and we tend to lose site of having any ambition in life. Ego’s, vanity, those take from our life too. As does fear and anger.

When we are poisoned with things in life that cause us not to live the best life, we aren’t living, we are actually dying a slow, unfulfilled life. Just my opinion.

My cousin Heather shared something really special with me yesterday. I was sharing with her some of my feelings about letting God down for not being more focused on the things I promised Him I would do. Heather said, “life happens and we have emotions and reactions to those life experiences, so that’s normal to feel how you naturally feel in response to them. The important thing is to heal, keep moving, forgive yourself and others and accept it for what it’s been/is/will be, and keep following your heart and intuitive impulses.”

You see, not only do I have clutter in my home, my mind is cluttered. They go hand in hand. You cannot be successful, or at least I can’t be successful in a cluttered space, except when I’m in crafting overdrive, then that’s a little different story. It’s the exception to my rule. Anyway, I’m coming to realize my poison is the amount of things I have.

You know, there are things I’m coming across that I forgot I even had. For example, I found a little bag of antique keys that I was going to use for a craft project. I bought them probably three years ago. They’re still sitting happily in their little bag. If I never found them, I never would have known I had them, thus, I obviously wasn’t missing them.

My poison in life is not letting go, not only of material things, but some things that have happened in my life. I am working diligently on letting go and letting God, but I am human and I do fall back into those states of mind of holding onto, let’s call them grudges or unkind acts done towards me or someone I love.

The best solution to letting go of any poison in life is; let go, let God. Pray and ask God for peace in any given situation. Pray before you go to bed tonight and ask God to help you have peace regarding whatever situation or obstacle you are facing. When you wake up tomorrow, see how you feel. I know I did that last night and I woke up feeling more peaceful about a certain situation then I had been feeling. The situation is still here, but I honestly, didn’t think about it at all today. I gave it to God.

As I begin my decluttering, I’m also going to give it to God. I’ll pray before I begin and perhaps then, I’ll be able to rid more stuff then I even think I will. I’ll keep you posted.

Life is simpler with less. The less you have, the less work there is to maintain it and keep it clean and organized. I’m not a minimalist by any means, I do like my extensive Halloween and Christmas villages and decorations, however, I don’t need 10 skillets or 5 sets of utensils. I think pairing down and giving to someone who is lacking will be of much better use for those types of things, agree?

Anyway, it’s getting late and I need to take the pups on their final walk and 5 am comes around pretty early, so I’ll be heading to bed soon.

I do hope you had a wonderful day and I hope you sleep tight.

Until next time, don’t forget, Love Life++ Hugs.