December 02 – Simplification: Go through your house and find three (3) items that you have not used in the last month (and that are not broken) and drop them off at the nearest Goodwill store (or branch of the Salvation Army or a local church, etc.).

Bonus Activity: Find 3 more items, wrap them as presents and give them personally away – one to a friend, one to an associate and one to a stranger.

This one was as easy for me as yesterday’s was difficult. As a Peace Pilgrim, I have been regularly & purposefully purging myself of material possessions for a number of years. It is amusing that, even after experiencing the Truth that the less I “own” the more energy I have at my disposal, I still accrue things at an alarming rate. I mean, I don’t even have a home to put them in, and I can still fill a large closet with all my stuff!  I’ve only got one suitcase, and enough things to fill three of them. It sure seems that we humans are “thing magnets”.  I sure am 😉 …

Anyway, the point of our “366 Days” is not to harp on what’s “wrong” or “broken” or “unideal”, but rather to have the courage to cleanse ourselves of the same – even if that cleansing is a seemingly insignificant one. Relieving ourselves of only three of our superfluous possessions (today’s task) may seem like a waste of time, and yet I have faith that you all experienced what I did: that every possession released gives us a commensurate increment of energy gained.

And this makes sense psychologically. Our reptile brains believe that our level of “material abundance” is somehow directly linked to our ability to survive potential “hard times”. And there is nothing more important to our primitive minds than survival.

So we gather and hoard and covet and yearn. If we have lots, we worry about losing it to another who has less. And if we have less, we jealously long for the “more” that which others have. This is why so many play the lotto. This is why so many pay so much for all kinds of insurance policies. This is why “The Secret” is a bestseller. This is why churches are filled with folks praying for God to bless them and relieve them from their own suffering.

Well, this is all fine and good, and yet there is another Way; there is the Way of Simplification.

It is an immense relief to actually free ourselves from the immense burden that our unused and unneeded items subconsciously place on us. And we can even bring others Joy while we do so – by giving those things directly to others as gifts, or by simply leaving them to be found.

So, what did I give away today? Well, I don’t own that much stuff, and yet even I have been burdened by possessing much more than I actually need. Of course, I only found out how heavy this burden was once I gave away those things today. And how good it felt!

As I laid out all my stuff on my bed to see what I was regularly using and what I was merely holding on to “just in case”, I found it difficult to choose only three items. So, I simply gave away everything that was currently superfluous in my life – 6 shirts (one of them brand new), one pair of jeans, the shorts I wore on the Camino de Santiago back in 2008, two almost-new pairs of underwear, 15 pairs of socks, my Ultimate Frisbee knee-brace and my cell phone.

Oddly enough, the knee-brace was the most difficult thing with which to part. Somehow, seeing it in my closet had been keeping my dream alive of playing high-level Ultimate Frisbee again someday. And yet I discovered that this dream was not a good one to have, as it was sucking enormous amounts of energy away from my Here&Now. Besides, I’ll always be able to play Ultimate if the opportunity presents itself – I don’t really need the knee-brace to do so.

Just as odd (especially for many of you, I expect), the cell phone was the easiest thing to part with. OK, I was only using it as an alarm clock, but still … It was neat to have, and it reminded me of a recent time in my life that was quite powerful (from December 2008 to May 2009 – the Utah days). And yet I wasn’t really using it and certainly didn’t need it – and even though I still carry their lessons with me, my “Utah days” are over and done with.

The experience of giving the phone away was enhanced by actually giving it to someone else, in this case a friend who works at the feed store where I pick up our farm supplies. He was blown away that I gave him an almost new cell phone, and I was blown away by how much better it felt to give it away than it did to own it.

Interesting stuff, this relieving ourselves of “stuff”!

See YOU when I see you …

… and until then, be Now!

Scaughdt

Filed under: 366 Days of Kindness by Scaughdt