“As you breathe, pray for the edge that is you to be as thin as possible and only as thick as necessary.” – Mark Nepo The Book of Awakening
Too many to-dos, too many items in your home that require maintenance and upkeep, too many clothes in your closet and dresser you never wear.
Excess is like clouds blocking us from the sun.
In our garage, we still have lots of boxes left unpacked. We are always meaning to go through them, sort, and lighten the load of excess. Somehow we have not carved out time to accomplish this goal. I wonder why? Sounds like fun ;). Looking at the clutter sits heavy on my soul.
*Note: Except for the boxes of holiday decorations. Those don’t make me feel cluttered, they bring me immense joy! My husband would disagree.
**Also note: You can never have too many pumpkins in the fall. I like to call those my environmentally friendly decorations 😉
If you were to walk from our garage into our home, you would see an excess amount of televisions. We still own a TV that I had in high school, and took with me to college. Since then I graduated, got married, and had 2 children. That tells you how old it is.
At this point in time our children are young so the TV time is controlled. However, our TV collection could prove to be a problem down the road. We’ve sprinkled TVs throughout our home. A couple of which rarely get turned on.
*Another Note: The TV in our kitchen is a keeper! My husband watches sports while washing the dishes. It works well for both of us. I don’t complain about the sports while he is cleaning the kitchen, therefore he watches in peace. Ladies- if this is an issue in your home I highly recommend it as a compromise.
Beware of Bulk
An area that has been an improvement for me is buying less bulk. I know you might be thinking it is less economical, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown out flour, sugar, or crackers that I bought in bulk because they sat too long. Plus they take up a lot space and lose their freshness over time.
Generally speaking, the food you buy in bulk is not the food you want yourself to eat a large amount of, with the exception of frozen fruit and vegetables of course :). Having less bulk food has helped me to reduce excess food intake. My mentality now is fewer, fresher, higher quality ingredients.
Now that you have been through my garage full of boxes, and my house full of TVs, I’d like to take you out to my yard, where you will find an excess amount of weeds popping up through both our landscaping and our grass. This is my positive perspective on living in a cooler climate in the fall and winter- just when you think you can’t deal with the weeds and lawn care any longer it gets cold and Mother Nature takes care of it for you :). Thank goodness! I’m a real slacker in this department. So long little white flowers killing my grass!
*Note: If you want to be my gardener, I’ll happily pay you in chocolate chip cookies! Any takers? Don’t all raise your hands at once.
Lastly, my 2-year old craps her pants an excess amount of times during the week. And like all 2-year olds do, she has mastered calming the parental reaction by following it up with something so darn cute! She sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the sweetest high pitched voice you ever heard while washing her cute little hands.
I would like to take this moment to thank Parenting. Illustrated with Crappy Pictures for what coloring time with my kids has now become… Try it. It’s a great release :).
Please do share! Are there any areas in your life where you struggle with excess? Are you a TV or Holiday decoration hoarder like myself? OK, so I may also be a bit of a cookie monster, but only with chocolate chip :-P.
