24 Things encourages you to make room in your home, heart, and mind to create an inspired future.
Being satisfied with little, you can gain much. Seeking much, you will go astray. The wise heed this precept. If it could only be so with all people. – The Tao Te Ching
One spring day in March, I headed into my basement to clear out the piles and boxes of old stuff. It turned into an exercise in introspection.
I wrote Princess of Garbage Day and was surprised at the reaction. People wrote and shared intimate stories of letting go and the fears attached.
I thought it would be an interesting exercise to let go of one item each day from April 1st until Easter, which fell on the 24th. I noticed how some items were really difficult for me to let go of but in the end I felt free. Free from my identification with the object and memory. Free to create something new to fill the space.
Letting go can be a challenge. We hold onto what we know because change is frightening and staying with the familiar, even if it makes us ill, and unhappy, feels better than venturing into the unknown. We sometimes feel that we are defined by our possessions or are the sum of our experiences.
Over-identifying with feelings or things can cut us off to life's bountiful possibilities.
When you let go and create freedom, in the home, mind or body, you create a sacred space. Inside this sacred space you can develop the faith that you will be provided for and cherished without the aid of material things.
24 Things is more than just cleaning house. It urges introspection, gratitude, and consciousness, and like any good yoga practice, it is done slowly, with a gentle nudge, and with Ahimsa (kindness)
Join me with 24 Things and together we can release the past with reverence and intention, create room for the new, cultivate faith in the future.
"The day I entered my first yoga class I was under the impression that I had something to acquire; a fit body, a spiritual path, like-minded friends. But I have not attained, I have let go; releasing beliefs that do not serve me, forgiving myself and others for mistakes, and relinquishing control over life’s moments, allowing them to flow through me, as they are, not as I insist they should be.
I am not so enlightened that I can let go of all my memorabilia but choices strengthen my connection to the things I decide to keep. Somewhere between the cobwebs and the keep box I realize that if everything is “important” then nothing is."
-The Princess Of Garbage Day
