“Tending the things around us and becoming sensitive to the importance of home, daily schedule, and maybe even the clothes we wear, are ways of caring for the soul.”—Thomas Moore
The other day I saw an ad for a folding machine. No joke. It’s a big, clunky thing into which you insert your shirts, towels, and whatever else you’ve got, and voilà! Out they come, all nicely folded. It made me think of TV ads from the 1950s, rolling out all kinds of gadgets promising to save us time.
While it’s a fun, innovative, and compelling idea, I can’t see how a device like this simplifies your life. I’m not sure it saves you any time, frankly. You still have to feed the thing a certain way.
And then you have to find a big space to store it . . .
And maintain it . . .
And miss out on the nourishing effects of folding clothes the old-fashioned way, and putting them away with love.
Why would you want to miss out on that?
Why would we want to miss out on the beauty that reveals itself when we move things around with awareness? Or the balance that is restored when we slow down and honor our things—like our bed, our broom, our clothes? Or the ease and quiet that comes from tending to our piles and digital loads one baby step at a time?
If these simple tasks give us ways to care for our soul, why would we want to miss out on that?
Hopefully by now you are beginning to see that our practices in simplifying are not about having a perfectly made bed or neatly folded clothes, beautiful drawers or sparkly floors. It’s not about sorting and tidying, beautifying and quieting.
It’s about what caring for our spaces does to soften and nourish and transform us. It’s about the heart and presence we bring to a task, no matter what it might be, and the spaciousness that naturally arises from that.
That’s what this is about.
Practice
Identify and clear: Walk around your home and identify any objects that you once loved, used, or “needed” but no longer serve you or feed your soul. Thank them for their service and let them go with love.
And PS, if [this practice] brings up feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, or shame (I could have done more. . . Who am I kidding? . . . My home is still such a disaster. . .), use your time this week to dial back and attend to the “piles of judgment” with as much awareness and compassion as you can. This too is caring for the soul.
–Excerpt from A Year for You: Release the Clutter, Reduce the Stress, Reclaim Your Life by Stephanie Bennett Vogt
Hierophant Publishing © 2019 – All Rights Reserved
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