I made an aim that 2017 was going to be a year of clearing away all the clutter in our home…a huge, overwhelming and daunting task! I’m talking about years and years of saved magazines, news articles, trinkets big and small, collectibles, paintings, clothes that I’ll probably never wear, paints that have dried out, pens and pencils (how did they give birth overnight like that?), slippers from hotels we stayed in, books I’ll never read, cool empty glass jars with lids cause you never know when you’ll need one and oh my gosh, a boundless number of shoes which I adore and never wear.
You know the drill, just way too much stuff.
Funny thing is when I started to do this I wasn’t very organized about it - just figured I’d move through it all organically….a drawer here, a shelf there. Wow, was I wrong about that approach! Although it did make me look productive, I just kept circling and those piles kept growing.
And then, I got help from someone who really knows her stuff. And here’s what I learned.
Clearing clutter or dejunking as Mela calls it is Holy Work. It is meant to be a reverent practice whereby you clear away that which no longer serves so that miracles can happen…..Yes, miracles. I’m talking about clearing so that the books on the shelves are able to contemplate their own thoughts. It was about allowing myself to be deprived of the books as I learned to enter a desert retreat of pure, empty listening. And what I learned was everything is text! The cosmos is a vast, polysemous, multi leveled book in and of itself; and it is to be read. So are the stars, faces, flowers, hands and rocks. I realize that I don't need one more cookbook, notepad.
What I needed to learn was a system of using my creativity in a completely new way. I learned that I was the one I’d been waiting for! And I needed to learn to trust, that if I did toss something that I wished I hadn’t... to trust that it was already integrated into my being.
"Dejunking" is sacred work
We started with baby steps; and went room by room. First downstairs and then up to the upper rooms of the house. Armed with dust cloths and cleaning products made from heavenly plant botanicals, I found myself almost in tears; sometimes frozen in a state of panic, and sometimes diving down a rabbit hole of memories.
I kept the awareness candle lit and with 30 min breaks would get up, stretch, drink water and go back for more.
Holy work is emotional
And sacred
And filled with mini miracles
And some humor
One of the first bookshelves I went to was so tightly packed I could barely move the spines. When I was finally able to budge an opening, a book fell to the floor and opened to this page “Clearing Clutter for Clarity”. Seriously, I kid you not! The title of the book is “Ask and it is given” by Esther and Jerry Hicks.
Here is some of what Abraham had to say about Clearing Clutter on page 242:
“Physical Beings have a habit of gathering stuff around them. Most of you gather this stuff because it is the way you keep score: it is the way you fill time. In other words, you live in a physical world, and physical manifestation has become important to you, but then you get buried in the details of your manifestation. Most of you spend much of your time just looking for things, and it is not only because you have too many things to sort through, but it is also because the gathering of the stuff is contrary to the freedom that is inherent within all of you. We have talked of the feeling of sadness that feels empty. People often try to fill that feeling of emptiness with stuff. They buy one more thing and bring it home, or they eat something: in other words, there are lots of creative ways in which you have tried to fill that void. And so it has been our encouragement to some: Discard everything from your experience that is not essential to your now. If you could just go through and release those things you are not wearing, release those things you are not using, release them and leave your experience in a clearer place, then the things that are more in harmony with who you are now will more easily flow into your experience.”
Well, I must say that I do feel lighter, no longer trapped in overwhelm and cotton candy head. It feels like the house can breathe, the energy can move, and the angels have a place to visit. Its just a wee bit more peaceful.
And there’s still more Holy Work to do. Mela reminds me that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if there was no plan, there would be no Rome.
Please do contact Mela Stevens: mela@wholebodyworks.net, if you would like some brilliant guidance on dejunking. Her step by step approach is simply amazing.
