Periodicals and the Root of All Evil

Old magazines are an ubiquitous category of clutter. Every household I have encountered is somewhere burdened with too many periodicals.

What I’ve discovered is that the impulse that leads you to amass a collection of periodicals is similar to the impulse generally recognized as the root of all evil, that is, greed, or the love of money. Hear me out. I’m not labeling your periodical collection “evil.” I’m noticing a similarity between two impulses.

How is the impulse to retain periodicals similar to greed? And what can we do about it?

I expect your explanation for your periodical collection is: “There are excellent articles in them. And I want to read these articles again [some day].”

And I would respond: “Yes, I understand that you find value in the articles. But, you’ve read them once, and already internalized the benefit. The pleasure of reading the articles, and the wisdom of the articles, are already part of who you are. You no longer need the periodicals themselves!”

(My further argument is that more periodicals keep coming. It’s what they do! You are so overwhelmed by the old, you can hardly pay attention to the new. And you have no space to accommodate the new. Your mind is burdened by the expectation that you will re-read the old some day; your living space is cluttered by the listing stacks.)

You find it difficult to let go. You may be in the (deeply ingrained) habit of securing access to re-experience. Let me say that another way. You may feel compelled to do whatever is necessary to make sure you can re-live certain experiences, in this case, re-read old articles.

And isn’t that what greed is… the impulse to secure that access? To make sure you can repeat certain experiences again and again? Money is a means of making sure you can do it again, whatever “it” is: eat at that restaurant, visit that city, drive that car, attend that concert, feel that thrill.

When you say you will re-read these magazines some day…. remember that some day means never!

C.S. Lewis said it better. In the second book of his sci-fi trilogy, Perelandra, Lewis’ keenly observant protagonist, Elwin Ransom, travels to the planet Venus, aka Perelandra, and discovers wondrous life forms there. In the following passage, Ransom meditates on his surprising experience of what he dubs “bubble-trees.” The exquisite nectar of the bubbles produces refreshment and enlightenment.

Now that he knew the secret, he could explain to himself why this wood looked and felt so different from every other part of the island. Each bubble, looked at individually, could be seen to emerge from its parent-branch as a mere bead, the size of a pea, and swell and burst; but looking at the wood as a whole, one was conscious only of a continual faint disturbance of light, an elusive interference with the prevailing Perelandrian silence, an unusual coolness in the air, and a fresher quality in the perfume. To a man born in our world, it felt a more out-door place than the open parts of the island, or even the sea. Looking at a fine cluster of the bubbles which hung above his head, he thought how easy it would be to get up and plunge oneself through the whole lot of them and to feel, all at once, that magical refreshment multiplied tenfold. But he was restrained by the same sort of feeling which had restrained him over-night from tasting a second gourd. He had always disliked the people who encored a favourite air in the opera — “That just spoils it” had been his comment. But this now appeared to him as a principle of far wider application and deeper moment. This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards… was it possibly the root of all evil? [Emphasis mine.] No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself — perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defense against chance, a security for being able to have things over again, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film. (Lewis 42-43)

Bubble-trees on Perelandra

I feel C.S. Lewis would agree with me if I were to argue that living in faith means resisting this “itch to have things over again.” Part of the meaning of living in faith is the willingness to accept the experience given you, and then let it go.

The practical application of this piece of wisdom is to accept the periodical you’ve subscribed to, and enjoy it, and then let it go, so that you can accept the next. In doing so, you will be exercising the muscle of faith.

How to Forgive the Dead

They did the best they could at the time.

To improve your decluttering skills, we are going to start with the dead. They are so much easier to forgive than the living, primarily because the dead can’t injure you any more, whereas the living can surprise you with another injury anytime. Working up the resolve to forgive anyone is hard enough. Let’s start with the more straight-forward category (the dead), and move onto the more complex category (the living) as you gain strength.

Before I get into the steps of this process, I want to make a disclaimer. This process of decluttering to effect forgiveness, and forgiving to release clutter, is recommended for treating grudges and self-pity. For example, it works wonders on the common grievances we have against our parents. However, it may be counter-productive for treating deeply held trauma. If you suffer PTSD, this process may be triggering.

Step 1: Select a person and a thing

To do the work of this process, choose one deceased relative: someone about whom you have mixed emotions (one comfortable emotion and one uncomfortable emotion), e.g., fondness and annoyance; someone who is associated with the clutter of your living space. Choose one object: something about which you have mixed emotions, e.g., joy and oppression; something that is strongly connected to your deceased relative.

I’ll give an example from my own practice. I selected my Mother, and a box of her letters to her mother, written in the 1950s.

The salient point is to be very specific and stick with your choice.

step 2: identify an injury

Visualize a past injustice, an instance when your deceased relative did or said something lousy to you. You may have seen it as punishment at the time, and come to terrible conclusions about your self-worth. Acknowledge that you in no way deserved punishment. But be very clear about your injury.

Name your feelings at the time. Don’t hold back.

In my own example, I visualized my Mother neglecting me when I was two years old, in a body cast. I was terrified that I would be abandoned because I was broken. (OK, that’s a little heavy, but you get the idea.)

The salient point is to be very specific and stick with your choice.

step 3: take a wide perspective on the person

Visualize your deceased relative as an innocent child. Consider that they, too, suffered injustice. They may have been injured, also. Don’t worry about assigning the terms “right” or “wrong” to the course of their life. Just witness the arc of their life: from innocence, to striving, to mistakes and misdeeds, to death.

In my own example, I visualized my Mother as a child who was often neglected by her socially ambitious mother.

step 4: ask for forgiveness

You did NOT see this coming! Yes, this step is counter-intuitive. Even though you were injured, you are asking for forgiveness. This step is deep magic.

Visualize anything you did or said to your deceased relative that was unkind, even if it was just cursing them for injuring you. And then sincerely ask for forgiveness. Because your relative is dead, this asking will take the form of a prayer.

In my own example, I prayed for my Mother to forgive me for being a hostile daughter. I visualized a specific time when my Mother accompanied me to a medical appointment. I just raged at her about everything, when, in fact, she didn’t do anything wrong; I was just feeling trepidation about the medical procedure.

step 5: Write it down on something flammable

On a sheet of paper or fabric, write a statement in this format:

To [deceased relative] stuck in [object connected to that relative]: I felt injured when you [their injustice]. I felt [uncomfortable emotion]. Please forgive me for [your unkindness].

So, my statement would be:

To Mother stuck in this box of old letters: I felt injured when you neglected me when I was in a body cast. I felt terrified. Please forgive me for raging at you.

step 6: Burn it

In a safe and legal way, release your grudge and lift up your prayer, by lighting the statement on fire. As the smoke rises and the ash crumbles, know that a transformation has taken place.

step 7: release the thing

Now that you have neutralized the emotional charge of the object, the connection between the person and the thing has been loosened. You will find it much easier to let go of the clutter. In my example, I found it easier to sort through the old letters, choose a few to keep, and release the rest (to the recycling bin).

If you need spiritual support as you release the thing, you can say this prayer:

Thank you. Please forgive me. I love you. Good-bye.

Make it heart-felt. As you put the object into the trash, the recycling, or the donation bin, hold a specific thought in your mind as you say each part of the prayer. In my example, I quickly prayed to the letters: Thank you for the elegant handwriting style I learned from these people. Please forgive me for putting you in the recycling. I love you for holding the energy of my family. Good-bye and have an exciting recycled adventure in the future, maybe as a pad of art paper!

This process may seem elaborate or time-consuming. But I urge you to follow the steps at least at first. Once you get the hang of it, you can streamline it.

more about the deep magic

Forgiveness is the empty space. Let me repeat that. Forgiveness IS the empty space.

You may have imagined that forgiveness was something you would DO. But it isn’t an action. It is the beautiful, sacred space that opens up when you release what no longer serves you.

When you release clutter, you create sacred space in your home. When you release grudges, you create sacred space in your heart.

The Anatomy of Letting Go

Thank you. Please forgive me. I love you. Good-bye.

I often find myself coaching folks to let go. I persuade, cajole, and encourage folks to do this thing that seems like nothing, but feels very, very frightening.

Letting go IS frightening. And, in the best possible sense, it IS nothing. Letting go is making the decision to stop holding on, stop carrying the weight, stop taking a particular responsibility, and stop worrying over a particular thing. That kind of nothing is a huge relief.

I’ve listed here the most important aspects of letting go, primarily to give you some vocabulary. I want you to be well-prepared to process the experience of letting go.

Letting go is exercising the muscle of faith.

Letting go is being suddenly in an empty space.

Letting go is clearing the way for blessings.

Letting go is an opportunity to follow Spirit.

Letting go can involve grief.

When your closed fist softens to an open hand…. you are letting go.

Here is how folks describe what they feel like when they let go:

Overwhelmed

frightened

isolated

And here is how folks describe what they feel like in the empty space on the other side of letting go:

free

relieved

accompanied

It’s beautiful. And it never gets old.

The Spiritual Opportunity of Decluttering

Union Village United Methodist Church, sermon, June 10, 2018, Abigail Burford

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

— Matthew 6:19-21

My name is Abigail and I’m a declutterer. People assume I am a professional organizer. No! I think organizing just makes the problem more deeply entrenched! My work is to help my clients let go of clutter.

I’m also a Quaker.  I hold to the Quaker tenet of simplicity, because simplicity allows for a kind of freedom that feels like inner peace. And freedom is the goal of my work.

You may wonder what a declutterer is doing in a church!    Well, the work that I do gives me a very interesting perspective on treasures in heaven. Every day, I see my clients trapped by their treasures on earth. I help them gain freedom, so that they can focus on treasures in heaven.

In the passage from Matthew that we just heard, Jesus clearly establishes an opposition between treasures on earth and treasures in heaven. You need to make a choice between the two. As Jesus says: “You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)

As a Christian, you want your heart to be in heavenly matters…. But, as a human being, you know how easy it is for your heart to be in earthly matters. Don’t despair. There is a way to make the shift.

Let’s get started.

Even here, in the land of the free, you may not feel free in your own home. It’s the effect of too many material possessions. You may be trapped by your treasures on earth.

Any object you own is clutter… if it does any of the following:

1.   Functions as an obstacle

2.   Fails to serve you now

3. Triggers feelings of shame

Why would you have possessions that function as obstacles? It doesn’t make sense, but everybody does it! Anything that sits in the entryway, blocks the light, or crowds the cupboard is an obstacle to your enjoyment of your home. This happens when you acquire more than what is needful.

Why would you have possessions that fail to serve you now? It doesn’t make sense, but everybody does it! Possessions that may have served you in the past, or may serve you someday, but don’t serve you now… are clutter.

It’s a universal human characteristic to memorialize the past, and to strategize the future. But, in fact, what serves you now is only what is needful for your present life.

Why would you have possessions that trigger feelings of shame? It doesn’t make sense, but everybody does it! It’s another universal human characteristic to retain things for which you have mixed emotions. And it’s my experience that shame is in the mix. Shame drives the cycle of addiction. And clutter is a sort of addiction.

Now, why declutter?

Let’s list the benefits. When you break this addiction, gain freedom, and declutter your home, you feel the benefit in:

1.   Body

2.   Mind

3.   Spirit

The benefit to your body can be as simple as removing tripping hazards and clearing the air. Chaotic arrangements of furniture, or untidy piles of paper on the floor, can be dangerous. And acidic air in your home can be unhealthy. The acidic dust from old books can give you breathing problems.

The benefit to your mind can be as miraculous as the elimination of tiresome thought-loops. Let me give two examples:

You have a family heirloom that you feel obliged to keep: a chair with a broken leg. Every time you walk past it, you think, “I should repair that leg.” But you also think, “I’m not skilled enough to fix it.” You’re in a painful impasse! What a relief to let go of the chair, and eliminate the thought-loop.

You have a souvenir that you feel obliged to keep: a beer stein from a trip you made to Germany with your ex. Every time you see it on the shelf you think of the bitter argument that ended your relationship. What a relief to let go of the beer stein, and eliminate the thought-loop.

Decluttering helps free your mind – in general – to entertain practical life solutions. The obvious example is: when you are trapped by clutter, you don’t feel free to even think about moving to a better, smaller space.

The benefit to your spirit is transformative. Clearing clutter opens up empty space in your home and in your heart. And empty space is an invitation for Holy Spirit to flow in.

Holy Spirit, which the Quakers call The Light, is a transformative power that flows through you and for you when you let go.

Holy Spirit brings healing and abundance in ways that you have not even imagined. I encourage you to open up empty space before you know why you have opened up empty space. Be brave enough to act on faith.

The other benefit for your spirit is that decluttering increases the likelihood of forgiveness. Let me say that another way: decluttering increases the chances that you will be able to forgive yourself, that you will be able to forgive someone else, and that you will be able to ask for forgiveness from someone else. This is the heart of my message. This is the spiritual opportunity of decluttering.

Forgiveness is notoriously tricky! Every minister, and every psychotherapist knows how difficult it is to guide people to a place of forgiveness. People resist it! Every minister, and every psychotherapist knows that the rational human mind finds forgiveness hard to swallow. The rational human mind has an appetite for justice and righteous revenge.

However, ruminating over injustice will poison you. Ruminating over your own mistakes, and feeling shame will cause you a lifetime of suffering. Who wouldn’t want the blessed release of forgiveness?  Who wouldn’t want to be set free from grudges and shame?!

But it’s tricky. Even though the Gospel teaches us that we’re forgiven, and even though we know we should forgive … we resist it. Surely there’s some secret, something we just haven’t discovered yet, to help with this process…

Well, I have a secret! Every minister, and every psychotherapist wants what I have. A concrete, specific, and readily available tool to help experience forgiveness. You guessed it: the clutter in your very own home.

The mundane act of addressing clutter, discerning what goes, bagging it up, and getting it gone, actually softens and opens your heart. This physical act of tidying up your living space actually prepares you to let go emotionally. Decluttering helps you to let go of shame, grudges, and self-justification… so that you can forgive yourself, forgive others, and ask forgiveness of others.

In 2010 I had a client whose brother had committed suicide 6 years earlier. She was stuck in grief that was mixed with anger at her brother for killing himself, and judgment for herself for not preventing his suicide. This was a complex and tender situation.

She had one of her brother’s shirts hanging in her closet, and I noticed that she had mixed emotions about it. In the early days of her grief, when she was in shock, the shirt was a comfort. But it had become an obstacle. She agreed to donate the shirt to a charity.

Even this small act, in faith, was enough to soften and open her heart, so that she could begin forgiving herself and her brother. This story illustrates how an object that memorializes your past, can actually block your present.

Even though there are marvelous benefits to decluttering, the process is daunting. The impediments to decluttering are:

1.   Emotional attachment

2.   Perceived monetary value

3.   Stewardship gone wild

Humans become very emotionally attached to their possessions. It’s as if invisible, energetic tendrils grow out of your central nervous system and twine around your possessions. You cannot rip these tendrils out. That would be an act of violence.

Effective decluttering is gentle. Those tendrils can be detached with love, and gathered in. Respect your emotional tenderness, but have the courage to act on faith.

Sometimes the most difficult clutter to clear, is the clutter with perceived monetary value. People hold on tightly to things that cost a lot of money. Examples are: designer clothing, and expensive exercise equipment that are not needful.

On this point, I want to reference the Gospel of Matthew. Here is the story of the wealthy young man who asked for Jesus’ guidance in attaining eternal life:

“Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

— Matthew 19:21-22

This kills me! He went away sad! He had a one-on-one tutorial with the Son of God, but he felt he couldn’t follow His guidance… because of the perceived monetary value of his possessions.

I encourage you to donate valuable possessions that you no longer need.

Some people are particularly motivated by the value of wise stewardship. They exercise good stewardship of resources, by keeping left-over building materials and art supplies. They have an absolute horror of sending usable materials to the landfill. But meanwhile…. their living space is becoming a landfill! I call this stewardship gone wild.

I encourage you to release yourself from the role of steward, if that role has landed you in a state of “overwhelm.” It is better to donate the materials, or even send them to the landfill, than to clutter your home, because you are not a free person if you are in a state of “overwhelm.” Yes, the planet is beleaguered. But the planet needs free people who can think clearly.

This brings us back to the goal of my work: freedom.

To conclude my remarks, I want to share something from a Quaker writer:

“Simplicity is the name we give to our effort to free ourselves to give full attention to God’s still, small voice: the sum of our efforts to subtract from our lives everything that competes with God for our attention and clear hearing.”

                                                Lloyd Lee Wilson

Decluttering is a way to create empty space – in your home and in your heart – so that Holy Spirit may flow through you and for you. When you do the daunting work of separating what is needful from what is acquired, way opens for you to live more simply, and to better hear God’s still, small voice.

In this freedom that feels like inner peace, you can better invest your heart in treasures in heaven.