The other day I received an invitation to attend a Solstice Meditation gathering at a new friend's home. In the invite attendees are requested to bring a dish of something to eat and something to 'let go' as a sort of Secret Santa. This struck me as odd that a request for something previously used would be made, but not only must it be pre-owned, it must be something valued but no longer needed.
I went out of town this weekend to stay in a hotel in Gettysburg, PA, and I've been pondering the invitation and the somewhat strange but endearing request for a gift. I'm a bit of a pack-rat by nature, you see, and all things in my various collections are loved and have stayed well beyond their welcome. Typically a request like the one made in the invite would send me into an anxiety attack of 'Oh no, what do I give?! Will it be good enough?!' followed by me running to a store and buying something to wrap up and give instead of parting with any piece of my collection.
This time, however, I'm really enjoying the journey of figuring out what to bring to this gathering of people I don't know. It's also got me thinking of things I can give to others. Things that I've been holding onto for far too long. My concern when I started hoarding these items was that they would just be thrown out and wasted. If given to someone that can appreciate or even love the item, however, it's not wasted and it's found a good home with someone who will appreciate it as much as I did when I needed it. This weekend I realized I've been gathering things to me out of an initial need, then holding onto them out of guilt.
It's given me the opportunity to stop and look around to see if I have something that someone else may need. It's good karma three ways from Sunday, really. The person who gets the item needs the item, I get to give the item out of love and guilt-free because it's going to a good home, and my art studio gets some free space. Good things all around.
Serendipitously, I've been reading a book called CrazyBusy by Edward M. Hallowell. It's a great read, and discusses everything from the clutter of daily life caused by emails, texts, and over-scheduled schedules to social disconnection. I realized while reading it in the hotel last night that I've already started to try to de-clutter and regain control of a work-life balance. Toxic people have kindly removed themselves from my life, and I thank them for that. My natural hoarding tendencies made me incapable of actually hitting the 'x' on Facebook, though I had stopped communicating with them.
Starting Tuesday I'm coming up with a bigger gameplan. Number one item on the new to-do list is clean up my home office, which is stacked with junk mail, scraps of paper, computers, and just so much stuff that I don't even know why it's there to begin with. Second item is to gather items found in the clean-up that I no longer need and am just holding onto and wrapping them up for shipment. They will all be going to good homes. Third thing on the list is to create a more detailed Outlook calendar wherein I have time alotted for the things on my work to-do list and have time alotted for a hopefully daily routine. It's even plugged into my phone's calendar, so I have no excuses.
Things happen for a reason, and they happen when we need them to happen. It's up to us to figure out what the message beneath it all is.
