Musings on Life by Roselle Kovitz

I confess, I’m intrigued with container and storage stores and have helped support them with a number of purchases. But lately I’ve been thinking, what does it say about our culture when more than 1,000 books and many lucrative businesses are devoted to organizing homes and offices, storing items large and small, clearing clutter, and hauling junk? Much of the world’s population would find such a focus on storage an odd notion as so many live with inadequate housing and few possessions.

I realize we all have our comfort zone when it comes to how we structure our surroundings. But collecting things, titles, people, awards, and experiences is a cultural norm. Building these collections often gives our lives meaning, provides context, and a sense of achievement. Most of us want to know that our life has meant something and that we’ve contributed in some way.

But who really knows whether all these experiences, connections, and things that we believe define us make a difference in the infinite scheme of things.

At a recent conference I attended, Roshi Joan Halifax, a Buddhist teacher, said that her attention was all she has to give. That short declaration strips things down to their essence. For me, the most important thing in life is love—perhaps that is attention.

So all the noise we create by structuring our lives to collect things can actually be a way of building a monument of distraction. The rise of the organizing and storage industries—not to mention all the communication pathways and devices used to collect and store messages and information—speak to how distracted and fragmented we’ve become. If our love and attention is indeed what is most meaningful, we are actually becoming more and more bankrupt—and not because of the malfeasance of bankers or mortgage brokers, but by not believing love, born of our attention is enough.

I struggle with this myself, daily. Even as a minimalist, I have many belongings, many tangible and intangible things I identify myself with, and many thoughts that clutter my head. I’ve been working on making space, in my mind, my surroundings, and my life, to be present for what unfolds.

Clearing out the clutter is not easy. I find it’s requiring intention, persistence, kindness, and forgiveness, all key to creating that space. Forgiveness, for one, is a great mental and emotional clutter clearer and the price is right!

Why not make space in our lives for our love and attention to take root? Clearing mental and physical clutter and avoiding the temptation to replace it is a good place to start. Who knows what gems you’ll find when the clutter clears?

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