Loading...Earlier this week, I spent an afternoon with my coach, Kay. They recently moved, packing up household items, hobby supplies, and memories collected over decades. The first thing we did when I arrived was tour the home.
Walking through their much smaller home, I was struck by the ways they were able to stay surrounded by, find room for, items important to them. I also noticed immediately the bright colors found in furniture and art on the walls.
For example, on a wall right inside is a colorful, four-piece set of wall art with the saying, “Life is too short for beige.” This original piece reflects the personality of the artist, who happens to be Kay.
Walls, covered in her artwork, furniture made by her father and her husband in every room, almost magically hugging anyone who enters with creativity and beauty. For them, leaving their beloved home overlooking a lake and all the beauty of the earth that surrounded them, this new place needed to have ways to bring what they left behind from the outdoors, indoors.
Downsizing always means purging. Purging always means reflecting, remembering through items, determining what really matters. How do we choose to let go of things we love, especially the memories that are carried with them? Sometimes it is impossible, and finding ways to keep those items requires creative placement, acquiring storage units, and even giving items away to others who may love them for the memories they hold.
As difficult as these decisions can be, letting go of stuff, whether that “stuff” is physical, emotional, or even spiritual, can provide opportunities to reflect on what we value, what is important, what we cannot ever let go. Those foundational things that ground us in the places we are, again, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, need to be protected.
Yet, we all have “stuff” that we cling to that might not bring us joy or lead us to love or that helps us see and express the abundant love of God in our lives. Letting go of these kinds of things can make us appreciate the foundational things…and it can help us find new ways to see and express the abundant love of God in our lives.
Some of us find that moving from one place to another helps us purge stuff that we once thought we needed, but with the move we no longer need. The decisions to stop bringing “stuff” from place to place feels like letting go of a part of us, but what would happen if we thought of it instead as an opportunity to reimagine and experience anew? How much more room would we have if we tossed away some of what burdens us? What if we surrounded ourselves with the things that provide joy, solace, beauty and hope, to build a life that expresses hope…
Because life is too short for beige.
Surrounding myself with the colors of love,
Rev. Debbie+
