We are acquisitive beings. We collect items that show the world who we are and what we value. As I look around my home, I see books. Lots and lots of books. Nearly each room contains them. Clearly, they matter to me. I would love to have a wall to wall shelf. I have read most of them cover to cover and some await perusal, for pleasure and work. My home is light and airy, colorfully and creatively decorated, kind of like its owner.  Plants, flowers, faeries, angels, prayer icons, photos, paintings, crystals … a woo woo lover’s delight. Unlikely that anyone would call me a hoarder, unless they lived in Zen simplicity, but there are certainly areas in my house that have needed cleansing and purging.

When we moved back to Bucks County after a 2 ½ year stint in South Florida, following the destruction of our Homestead, Florida home in Hurricane Andrew in 1992, we had very little in the way of belongings and needed to buy everything new. The development into which we moved had a yard sale a few months later and we laughed to know we had nothing to sell. Now, 23 years later, I have re-accumulated stuff. 

A few months ago, at the urging of an intuitive therapist/tarot card reader, I have cleaned, renovated and re-claimed a room in my home as an office and peaceful haven. It is where I go to veg and relax as well as write. It is an oasis and contains a closet that stores old files and papers that I need to go through. Getting there, bit by bit. What felt like a greater priority was cleaning out my bedroom closet. Clothing that I haven’t worn in ages was neatly folded and placed into a bag to be donated. Storage bins became containers for other items. Shoes are in a hanging bag with compartments for each pair. Boxes and trash bags filled up with papers that I had been saving for God knows what reason? I am a copious note taker when I am in classes or workshops, so much fell into that category. I figured that if I hadn’t looked at them for years, then I likely didn’t need them, so out they went. 

I teach classes and workshops as well, so I wasn’t surprised to find bags and boxes filled with files of handouts, art supplies, feathers that I hand out to participants. I have begun to consolidate them as well. One of the delights of having a clean closet, is being able to walk onto its vacuumed carpeted surface and sigh.

My brain is like that cluttered space, filled with random thoughts that that take up space. While I can’t say that if I haven’t used a thought in a while, then I need to toss it, like I would those pieces of paper, I can determine what I need to relegate to the archives. Then I can access them as needed.

What I have learned is that when I clear space of old, worn out, no longer useful stuff, whether substantial or symbolic, I leave room for the new, revelationary/revolutionary to enter. Eager to see what shows up.