Personal Meditation No. 36

“Unpacking thoughts, things, and people will unclutter your path and increase your focus.”

Embrace the Within.

Spring cleaning thoughts, things, and people is an important necessity for anyone that collects. Determining what you’re going to keep is crucially important for all three because you only have limited space in your mind, your home, and your life for each. Imagine trying to hold onto all these things and appreciate them all equally. It’s an impossibility that leads to making choices about which of these we need and those we don’t or merely want. So sometimes we get to make the tough choices in order to unclutter all three.

The older I get the more thoughts, things, and people I collect. I spent this weekend doing some more decluttering of all three. I began with getting a load of cassette tapes out of the basement. I don’t know why I still have cassette tapes when most of the tape players I still own just devour them. With so many digital avenues to consume music and the sheer number of the tapes, I just got to the decisions that they weren’t doing anything but taking up space in my study.

And there were a lot of things taking up space in my mental study. I still want to save people from their own destructive choices. I still want people to choose peace over violence. I still want people to think about their actions before passing me on double yellow lines on back country roads. But they seldom do these things.

So, I’ve got to continue to work on the one person I can control, me. I have to accept that the world is full of “meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly” people as Aurelius said. But that doesn’t have to affect my behavior to those thoughts and people. I can still work on my study by working on me.

This is a process of decluttering I am working toward for the rest of my life. And the process comes from me choosing. Not looking around for solutions from something, someone, or somewhere other than me. I get to be free and independent today and every day. And for that decluttering, unfettering, and unencumbered I am grateful. I hope you do some spring cleaning for your thoughts, your things, and your community. And that simplifying those things brings you peace.

I hope you find whatever you’re looking for. Have the day you want.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain