CLUTTER

"Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one."

~Baltasar Gracian~

A hero is defined as, "a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities." The thesaurus says, "brave man, superman, champion, and conqueror."

Today I question how you can be a hero in the midst of clutter.  Our cars are cluttered, our desks are cluttered, and our lives are cluttered.  Can we hope to be courageous, brave and superman in the midst of clutter?  Clutter can fill our hearts, and minds, and clutter can drain us.  And as we are drained, so often are our hopes and our energy and our desire for greatness.

Critical choices must be made to rid our lives of the clutter.

Rev. Dr. Wiley Stephens says, "There are the regrets of things we did not do in the past or things we wished we had done.  You might call this the clutter of the way not chosen."  Or the clutter of the road not chosen as in Robert Frost's words, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both."  Okay I get it. 

To quote Peter Walsh's wisdom, "When we have trouble letting go....it's usually the memory, rather than the item itself, that we are frightened of losing."  Wow that hits home.  Sometimes things, and often even people, clutter our lives and we have trouble letting go. They are no longer useful, no longer necessary, no longer loved or even liked, but we cling to them because we cling to clutter, stuff that has outlived its purpose and usefulness.  So why do we do this?  Why can't we let go of clutter? Why are we afraid to let go of it?

What critical choices must we make as we unclutter?  How do we clean things up and clear a path to our future, free from the debris of the past?  How do we face a future with an open heart?

A confused or disordered state defines clutter.  So it makes sense to clear confusion and disorder from our lives in order to clear the path to our future. 

Then sometimes these questions are too much.  "Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold.  But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color of the rainbow to slide down."  ~ Douglas Pagels.  Sometimes a good rest can lead to the answers along with a broom or a vacuum to clear away your doubts and fears. 

James Carroll, ~ "We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking.  We move along the surface of things...but, there are times when we must stop.  We sit still.  We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or in its memory.  We listen, and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper."

Maybe it is in these breezes and rainbows that we begin to clear away the clutter.  Maybe the answers will come, as we live the questions...the answers will come.

Maybe being a hero isn't the answer, maybe being human is. 

*****************

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." Ambrose Redmoon