Shallow Living

Do you ever go through periods in your life where you seem to be living in shallow water? Surrounded by millions of people you simply continue swimming with the school, not paying any attention to what you're doing, what you're seeing, what you're feeling. Despite the glorious weather & newness of spring which I am appreciating in little moments, I seem to be swept away with life. I notice or experience things for a moment, then simply continue to swim, lost among the rest of the fish. It's not a place I like to be. I'm wondering how I can change it.

I think one of the things I need to do is to stop spending so much time on the computer (and yet, here I sit), less time in front of the television. Less Facebook, more face to face interaction; less t.v., more reading, less useless crap, more meaningful use of my time to grow closer to God or to invest in others.

As I've been taking a cleaning and organizing class at Zurich church it's helped me to realize how much clutter I have in my home, in my mind and in my life. So much useless junk that I've collected and held onto over the years. As a self-proclaimed pack rat I have such a hard time getting rid of stuff, but I've really been working on that and am happy to say I've gotten rid of over 400 lbs of stuff from my house in the last month, with much more work to do! I've always
been a collector...as a child I collected anything and everything: stickers, erasers, rocks, shells, you name it, I collected it (just ask my mom). As an adult when I look at a room full of junk and clutter I feel completely overwhelmed and don't know where to begin; so instead I just walk away and leave it for another day. Over the past month or two I've been tackling some of those areas, or "hot spots" as Sandra Felton calls them (the author we referred to during our class). It feels really great to clear our those spots...it's actually freeing to get rid of stuff! So I think I have come a little ways in that area, but not far enough, there are still many areas in my house that need de-cluttering...and many areas in my life and mind that need the same thing. My mind can be full of so much junk (worries, stress over what I'm going to make for supper that day, frustration and impatience), I need to learn to de-clutter that too. How does one learn to quiet their mind? To stop the endless list-making in her mind? I need to learn to be silent; to listen; to see what God wants me to see.

Lord teach me how.

Melanie