Give it Up

Do you feel a sense of despair lurking around the corners of our communities? Does Michael Phelps need to swim another lap to turn our conversations back into something positive? Do we need the dollar to rebound and gas prices to drop to lift our sagging spirits?

I don’t think so. We just need you, me and a few friends to start planting a few good seeds. But we need to hurry…the weeds are gaining ground.

Last week, we tried a day free from assumptions. Here’s a list of more things from which we can liberate our spirits…

• Give up politics. Think how much precious time we spend anticipating the worst from people we will never personally know. We have no idea what our national, or even local, candidates are really like or what motivates them. I do think it’s important to be aware and engaged in the process and to arm ourselves with facts before entering the voting booth. That mindful participation is what (most of) our founding fathers were counting on. However, be sure you’re part of the process and not part of the frenzy created by media, bloggers (ahem) and advertisers who want to claim your valuable attention less for the public good and more to feed their personal and collective egos.

• Give up stuff. When life outside begins to feel overwhelming, take control of life inside. This is a great time to simplify and GIVE AWAY. I would have said I had already done this, but then I went through those same drawers and closet I thought I had purged and I gave away at least a quarter of what remained. It felt great. Never once did I wonder about how much it could bring if I had a garage sale. My exercise was to Give It Up, not to get it back. Oh, wait! I already did get something back. I know the things I gave away will bring real relief and joy to somebody else. If you want to read the rules I applied to my closet, I’ll share them at the end of this entry.

• Give up money. If you’re sitting in front of a computer you own reading this blog, you are wealthy. You are not living below the poverty level. Mary Charlotte and I went to a packing event for Feed My Starving Children where we helped pack a rice mixture that will alleviate hunger in places where children eat mud to satisfy their hunger so they can sleep. We do not live desperate lives. I give a great amount of my time to the Partnership for a Drug Free America Arizona Affiliate because I want parents and community members to understand how to equip every child to lead a life free from drug addiction. I have no worries.

Yeah, in “times like these” when Greg has no job and I haven’t exactly hit my stride as the world’s next great motivator, my financial advisor might caution me to hang onto what I have. But I just can’t. As long as I have money I will share it, because someone else’s “times like these” are the times it’s needed most.

• Give up time. You thought this was going to be about volunteering didn’t you? I think that would be spiffy, but I want you to just give up time. Period. Time is limitless. You’re not. So quit fighting time and live a few precious moments you might otherwise rush through. Let’s linger a moment over a cup of morning coffee on the patio. (Of course you can! Quit telling the computer monitor how unrealistic I am!) Better yet, linger in an embrace. If you have no one in your house to hug, go find a senior citizen living alone and hug them. It’s time to be about God’s time…to breathe a deep breath of peace…to be an open channel.

• Give up judging. Start with silencing your inner critic. You’re just fine. Now go listen to someone who irritates you and who generally makes you feel spiritually and intellectually superior. Listen for God in their story. Find merit in another perspective and hope in a lost cause. Judgement comes in small forms and robs big space in your soul, so let it go.

What other things should we give up? What weeds do we need to pull so seeds of goodness have space to grow? Let me know!

About my closet…
You can go to lots of great sites to learn how to effectively organize your life. In fact, my friend Dianne is a professional organizer whose link you’ll find on my Favorite Links tab on my web site. These were my rules and I absolutely made myself stick to them. It left my closet and went to a local non-profit if…

• I hadn’t worn it in a year.
• It didn’t fit well.
• I didn’t LOVE it on me…because life is too short not to feel great. And really, if you have two or three outfits you do feel great in, you already own more stuff than about 90 percent of the world’s population.
• I was only keeping it for sentimental reasons…this included both of the dresses Mary Charlotte wore as a flower girl and a flannel jacket Patrick, who now towers over me as 6′ 6″ 16-year-old, had felt oh so snuggly in when he was three and four. I have precious memories and even a few great photos of my children in these things; I didn’t need the object.
• I had to dust it.

Greg went through the same process. We had gone to IKEA to find more shelving for his home office (aka the corner of our bedroom) and he came to the conclusion that he didn’t need more shelves. He needed less stuff. So he separated himself from about 100 pounds of paper and reference books. Then he went to work on his closet! I don’t know if he found it to be quite the spiritual experience I did. I would tell you our room has a lighter feeling than it did before. The space feels lighter and more peaceful. Greg would say…the recycling container is going to be full way before it’s picked up this Friday.

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