I’ve been thinking about moving a lot lately. There are a lot of things that go into a big move. Where are we going to move to? What kind of place do we want to move into? What are we going to do when we get there? What do we want to take with us when we go? What do we NOT want to take with us when we go?
That last couple of questions really got me thinking. What would I want to take with me if I were to move? And what would I NOT want to continue dragging along with me into the future? My questions continued. Are the things in my life serving me or am I a slave to them?
Up to this point, I had certainly been feeling like a slave to the things that I own. Every day working on chores and at the end of the day I look around and think, “I can’t even tell what I did today? How’s anyone else supposed to notice?” The constant hamster on a wheel routine had been just wearing me down. Each day, fighting for the motivation to just keep plugging away. These questions brought me to a complete halt. I looked around my house and my life with new eyes.
Questions poured into my mind.
- Are the things in my house serving the life I am currently living?
- Are the things in my house serving the life I WANT to be living?
- Are the things in my house supporting the direction I want my life to be moving?
Three questions. But only one answer. NO. No, the things in my house are NOT serving the life I am currently living. No, the things in my house are NOT serving the life I WANT to be living. And, No, the things in my house are NOT supporting the directions I want my life to be moving. Out of these, I think the one that really caught me and surprised me the most was that the things in my house are not serving the life I am currently living. What?! I am wearing myself out daily, trying to maintain a level of chaos that doesn’t even support the life I am living right now? !! How can that be possible? Easy. I’m not living the life now that I thought I would be five years ago. Ten years ago. My life’s course has gone way off from where I thought it would and I hadn’t done anything to accommodate for those changes.
Ten years ago I thought that by now Kate would be on her own, free of cancer, that all of her stuff would have gone with her and that we would have sent some other things as well to help her get started. Instead, she found a heavenly home and although we have distributed a fair bit of her stuff, some of it is still here, and everything we would have sent with her is still here as well.
Ten years ago, I figured by now the other older kids would all have their own places and that we would have gotten all of their stuff out of the house and sent some other things along with them for their new places. That didn’t work out the way I had envisioned either. Although none of the older kids live with us, and only one of them still has stuff at our house, only one of them really has their own place and that one moved halfway across the country. She didn’t really take all that much with her when she left. I also thought ten years ago that we would have at least half a dozen grandchildren by now and that at least some of them would live nearby. Wrong again. Only three grandkids so far and they all live halfway across the country. I had been living a life based on expectations that had not come to pass.
I began to wonder, how many things in my life no longer belonged to the life I was currently living. I did a walk through my house, just looking around, asking myself, “How many of these things no longer belong in the life I am currently living?”
“Are the things in my house serving the life I am currently living?”
In my upstairs closet I had spent ten years storing two large totes filled with roller skates and roller blades. I just stood there for a minute, realizing that there is still no one around to use them. That even if there was a sudden pregnancy announcement that day, it would still be another SIX YEARS before there would be a child big enough to use ANY of them. Room by room I looked, my eyes finding all kinds of things that didn’t belong in the life I was currently living. Before even making it through the entire house I came to a decision. It was time for things to change. Everything that no longer had a place in the life I was currently living had to go. It was time to get started.
Challenge: Put on some new ‘glasses’ today. With lens that say, ‘Are the things in my home serving the life I am currently living?’ Take a slow walk through your home. Don’t rush it. Repeat the question as you take in everything around you. What things in your home are NOT serving the life you are currently living?
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