Tag: #unclutter

In the Perspective

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It’s cloudy here in Texas, so I’ve been doing some things around the house. I’m enjoying my alone time, but still have a lot I want to do before my daughter gets home.

Yesterday, I met a friend for lunch.

It was spur of the moment, but let me just tell you, the drive was spectacular! We met in Elgin, TX, which was the nearest town to my daughter and I, when we lived on 40 acres. I haven’t had a reason to go there the past couple of years, so it was interesting to see how things had changed.

Even though my daughter is not here this weekend, she is in my heart. I went into what used to be a couple of my favorite shops yesterday, and came home with some little things she will love. These two shops had changed since the last time I was there, but one shop still had a couple of my favorite things. I went into that shop twice.

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The tins of mints describe pieces of our life.

My daughter’s worst days are contributed to PMS. I have to stop everything I’m doing to accommodate a hot flash. The next time she apologizes for her moodiness, I can hug her, and hand her these. It’s in the perspective.

I have been reading a number of Blogs recently, and a lot of writers have stopped writing. If you love to write, then write. It doesn’t matter if it has a point, because the person who is reading it is going to get what they need from it. Things jump out at me that the writer probably just threw in there.

The numbers are not reality.

Algorithms control what people see, but our God controls who sees what we write. I have seen Him use it many times, and it wasn’t reflected by numbers. I will continue to write what is on my heart, so God can use it.

I was the most fulfilled by writing in January, when I did so everyday. I didn’t always have something profound to share, but it felt good. If I’m sad about something, or in a rotten mood, I try not to burden you with it. Once I have revelation, that is what I love to share.

Just like spending time this weekend, uncluttering my home. That also unclutters my mind.

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My daughter loves these soaps. These are hand soap size, so not a lot of money. There is something so intoxicating about the smell of a man. We don’t have a man living in our home, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying the smell of one.

It’s all in the perspective.

 

To Be Seen

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We are only given one life. God gave me this Blog title before I fell asleep lastnight. Facebook revealed to me this morning, it was 3 years ago today that I wrote my first Blog.

It doesn’t feel like 3 years ago, but looking at my life today it makes sense. I have simplified my life so much, and I’m still doing it today. My daughter and I have this joke about driving, and getting distracted by the sunset. She would be the one arriving home late because she was taking pictures of the sky.

It takes time to unlearn what we’ve learned.

When my daughter and I starting living together on our own, I recall a moment of us getting dressed and ready for the day. She was frantically trying to get ready, and out the door, as I stood there feeling a building pressure of being late again. Then I had a life changing revelation.

I looked her way and said, “We’re not in a hurry.”

After spending most of my life rushing, this was huge. We were not on anyone else’s timetable anymore, so we got to choose how to live our lives. Our lives were pretty much a blank canvas at that point, so we had the opportunity to fill it in as we pleased.

We stopped rushing, and began enjoying our life.

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When I see my daughter rushing today, I still tell her, “We’re not in a hurry.” I think I say it outloud for my own sake as well. It’s like a reminder for both of us.

This took years of downsizing, and my flesh having fits because I thought I needed that ginormous house. God gently moved us from one house to the next, each time they got smaller, and we were forced to let go of more things. When my daughter and I moved for the first time into our own little house, that was a defining moment for me.

We only took the things we loved.

There was so much stuff in that house, you couldn’t tell anything was missing when we left. We have moved twice, so we have given away a lot of what we thought we loved. We continue to simplify our lives.

Yesterday, I rearranged the furniture in our den. I woke up this morning excited about walking into a newly designed room. It caused me to take notice of something that has not been used in a while. My daughter’s desk. She has been doing her schoolwork at the dining room table this year, when she has a perfectly good desk. It’s just cluttered up.

To see our lives, and all the opportunity it holds, will take some uncluttering. She has a bookshelf behind her desk that can be made more useful. When she returns home tomorrow, she will have a clean, inviting desk, and a bookshelf housing what she needs.

Enjoy your life. It’s waiting to be seen.

A Full Heart

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Cleaning house is like therapy for me. It might be a few days before I get around to it, but once I do, I find my center. Just doing something with a positive outcome like mopping, vacuuming or dusting, brings things into focus.

The shower has the same effect.

Maybe God has something about cleaning because He has me in one spot for a moment and I’m able to listen. Mopping the floor today, I was enjoying the beauty of the wood. Each slab is unique and has it’s own design. I don’t have it covered up with a rug, but it did bring to mind a rug I used to have.

It’s at my ex husbands house, where I left a lot of stuff. He’s not using it, so for an instant, I toyed with the idea of asking him for it. It is a hugely expensive rug, rolled up collecting dust. It amuses me when I think of a material object from the past that I would like to have today.

It never works though. They just don’t fit where I am.

I completely understand the draw of holding onto the past. Whether it’s material objects, or people, it’s comforting. Pondering this today, I can’t think of  anything from my past that would bring me joy in my present.

The past is the past for a reason. It’s not healthy to live there and it’s next to impossible to move on and grow. When I was able to let go and clear my heart and mind, there was room for growth.

The more you clear the clutter of your past, the more room you have for new possibilities, and that leads to a full heart.