Less Becomes More

If you want the honest spiritual truth, my prayer is this:

Dear God, get me out of this mess.

Rita Mae Brown

It has been a busy week around here. We worked in the business everyday, including the 4th. Work, combined with the extremely hot weather, has left me feeling tired, physically and emotionally.

I get into a kind of depression this time of year. We are so busy with our business that everything else goes to the wayside, especially my house.

I had planned to have a yard sale this year. There were boxes crammed with books, clothes, knickknacks and whatnots under my garage. Every time I would carry another box out to the pile I felt this felling of chaos and confusion engulf me. I began to look at that pile of stuff with such a feeling of despair.

It became a pressure that I felt stuck or mired in. A distressing situation that I couldn't find the time to change. I knew I had enough for a very good yard sale, but it became more important to me to just get rid of the stuff. In doing so I hoped to clear my mind as well as my garage.

I guess I'll always be a messy person. I don't always make my bed. I don't always hang up things after I wear them. I've been known to leave a towel laying in the floor. Being messy causes small miseries to pile up as well. Things get lost or broken. I get embarrassed when people come over and everything isn't like I want it to be. I've found that when my house is messy, my life is usually messy as well.

When everything gets to the point where I can't stand it anymore, the only thing to do is purge and clean. Reach for the broom and the garbage bags and boxes and clean it all up. That is what I have been doing. I took two truck loads to Goodwill and the dump and two truck loads of weight off my mind and spirit.

In some cases always holding on to items "in case we need them", or making a decision that may save or make us a few dollars, but requires a lot of effort on our part, may feel like the most frugal thing to do. In reality it can bind us and keep us from receiving a much greater blessing or prevent us from using our time and effort where it is most needed. Being frugal isn't just about stuff or money. It is also about being wise with our greatest resource... our enegry and our own peace of mind.

"Prayer and housekeeping---they go together. They have always gone together. We simply know that our daily round is how we live. When we clean and order our homes, we are somehow also cleaning and ordering ourselves." Gunilla Norris