There is something about the month of March that makes me
want to simplify, refresh, and renew. As I look at my personal history through
the years, I find that this has typically been a month of searching, reflecting,
and rebuilding. I think it is partially
because I am NOT a winter person—and I know some of you who don’t live in year
round sunny California think I really have no idea what winter is, and you are
right. I am a California native spoiled with sunshine, so having just a couple
months (weeks) where there is rain and fog and temperatures below 50, my
internal clock gets sluggish and antsy. I am ready for spring with all its fresh bounty and the whole idea of spring cleaning gets into my head and my bones.
I was in the yard last week
inspecting what “winter” has done--all the plants and grasses that are
awakening from their winterized state, yet still in disarray. I started to dead head, clip back, and prune
and at the same time I saw new growth, new leaves, new buds. It is such a
transitional time. I want the old and dead to be gone and the new and fresh to
burst with excitement. Yet there is this waiting period that needs to happen as
the warm weather slowly heats up and rebirthing season begins. After that time
in my yard, I got this urge to purge. After deadheading and seeing new growth,
I just wanted to dead head everything in my life. (Beware a menopausal woman
with an urge to deadhead). I began looking at the drawers, closets, laundry
room, bookshelves, file cabinets in my house and realized how much stuff
(translated crap) that we have that takes up space. This is stuff that has been
sitting there for years and just gets reshuffled or pushed to the back of the
pile or space. I got overwhelmed and a little anxious and stressed and then I
began to get physically sick—sick to my stomach and breaking out in sweat. Here
I am a person who goes to Uganda year after year and sees people who live in a
hut with no bed, no closet, and certainly no storage, and here I am wallowing
in stuff. And it isn’t stuff that
someone else needs or could use, it is just stuff.
So, I tackled my closet first. You know that
rule that says, “If you haven’t worn it in a year you aren’t going to wear
it”? I have tried to follow that rule before
and then I think, “Well, I wear this in Uganda or I wear this when I go to the
snow (which is once every five years or so) or I really should wear this so I
will keep it.” I threw out all that
thinking this time (pun intended) and ended up with seven garbage bags of
clothes I don’t wear and five trash bags of shoes and clothes and junk from my
closet. It was freeing, liberating,
renewing to do this, even though I had to take a break at least three times
because I was so disgusted with myself at all the things I own and I had to
walk away from my mess. If that wasn’t enough torture on myself, I then went to
our pantry. All the times I hear the boys say, “We have nothing to eat!” and our
pantry is filled with staples—bread, peanut butter, rice, soup, canned
vegetables, snack chips, waters, Gatorades, and extra water for when that
earthquake hits and so much more. We have a refrigerator, a refrigerator in the
garage, plus a storage freezer with things at the bottom that I am sure have
been there for years. And I have decided that I want to (need to) minimize and
simplify in all areas of our life. The
next time we say we have nothing to eat, we go to the pantry or the freezer and
we eat what we have. It might not be what we are craving or the most delicious
thing, but we are getting rid of what we have and not wasting more food or more
money. I look at my bank log and realize how much money we spend on frivolous
food. We go out to eat or we stop on the
way home from youth group or sports and get “fast food” when we could come home
and eat an apple or make popcorn or rice. But it is always about convenience and
speed.
In my March madness mode of
thinking, I am just plain sick at our way of living. I am always saying that we
take so much for granted—our home, our conveniences, our cars, clothes,
jewelry, comforts, luxuries. And as I think about my yard where the new growth
on my hydrangea and hibiscus are just appearing and my closet that has clothes
lined up that actually fit without being stuffed in, and my pantry that is
filled and yet we still think we “need more”, I think about what Jesus said. “Take up your cross and follow me.” I can’t take my clothes, or my food, or my
stuff or my crap or my storage freezer, but I can take up my cross and follow
him. And all that other stuff is just
that—stuff. It weighs me down, it weighs heavy on my heart, and it makes me
someone who relies on things, instead of my Lord and my King. It is March—time
to renew and refresh and rebuild. And it
starts by throwing away the junk—the materialistic junk that is cluttering our
homes and the emotional and mental junk that is cluttering our minds. It is
time to deadhead all in our lives that keeps us from bursting into full
beautiful bloom.
PS—we are having leftovers tonight.
3 comments:
One word for using the food you have and still maintaining that busy mom hours between 3-8 is CROCK POT. I know it is old fashion but slow cooking all day can make anything delicious and just as convenient as fast food or going out. My mom gave me one and I did not see the value in it at the time. Who would have thought our moms were so smart.
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