I’ve been looking around my home and thinking, maybe less would be more. This is a radical concept for me. Raised by a mother who collected antiques, I grew up in a home that resembled a page out of Country Living magazine. Consequently, I have many belongings. They remind me of happy and sad experiences, days and nights in my life, places I have visited and adventures I have had. Lately, though, they have begun to resemble clutter.
It makes me ask, what belongs within us? What do we allow within our inner sanctum, our heart or soul space? Undoubtedly, there is great competition in our culture for our mind’s attention. We are bombarded with unrelenting external messaging that can cause us to compromise the beauty of our interior lives. How do we construct a place for love to belong among all we hold on to? It’s an abstract thought, I know.
Sometimes my mind is overly eager to fill the spaces of my heart with things that are not conducive to building the love I want within me. It can be easy for me to talk myself into giving these natural human reactions some of my precious interior space. Then I have to ask myself do these feelings or thoughts belong here with love? If the answer is no, it’s time to let them go.
All this is a lot to think about, and so to avoid getting lost in an endless philosophical debate with myself, I have decided to re-examine my actual, physical home. It is time to question and sort what belongs and what doesn’t. I want to make space, within my home, within my heart, for what I truly treasure.
~Lisa Kiel
You are such a deep and thoughtful writer… this spoke to me in so many ways…. my mom was a collector also however the items were different although the practice was the same. It has been in the letting go of what’s NOT ME and holding on to the things that make me who I am that have been most healing over the years.
Thank you, Lisa. I need to do the same thing!