Back when Olivia was in preschool, she went through a brief period of hoarding. I\u2019m not talking about holding on to too many favorite toys; I\u2019m talking about hiding deflated balloons and broken plastic spoons in her nightstand, of \u201crescuing\u201d used Dixie cups and even old tissues from the bathroom trash can because she couldn\u2019t bear the thought of anything being thrown away. \u201cHon, I think she\u2019s going to be writer,\u201d her Montessori teacher said. And while I tried not to be offended by that evaluation, I have to admit there was probably some truth to it. Whether a writer or musician, artist or actor, creative types tend to see beauty where no one else does.<\/p>\n
Almost one year into my job as director of communications for the Diocese of Albany, I continue to add odd trinkets and new decorations to my office to bring a sense of peace and joy to the place where I spend the bulk of my time. It\u2019s gotten to the point where other people stop by to soak up some serenity because the twinkling lights, bamboo plant and various photos and icons signal to them that there\u2019s something different going on there. Just walking into my office and seeing my treasures can make me smile.<\/p>\n
And yet, I desperately want to declutter my life\u2014physically, spiritually and mentally. I long for both literal and figurative clean lines and open spaces. Enter \u201cThe Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,\u201d a bestselling book I thought would provide the solution to my object overload. It sat in a pile of clutter on my nightstand for about nine months before I decided to crack the cover. When I did, I began to see things more clearly, but not in the way I had expected.<\/p>\n
Author Maria Konda recalls her horror upon opening a client\u2019s sock drawer and seeing all the \u201cpotato-like lumps\u201d of rolled socks. She writes: \u201cI pointed to the balled-up socks. \u2018Look at them carefully. This should be a time for them to rest. Do you really think they can get any rest like that?\u2019\u201d She goes on to talk about how socks in your sock drawer are \u201cessentially on holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Um, I get tremendous joy from many inanimate objects in my life, but sometimes a sock is just a sock. I think when we start to blur the lines between things we love and things that serve a practical purpose and are required whether or not we love them\u2014tax returns and toilet paper come to mind\u2014we move into territory that can get in the way of our connection to the many things all around us every day that truly do contain a seed of the divine. Sorry socks, but you don\u2019t rate that ranking. Unless I\u2019m buying the wrong kind of socks.<\/p>\n
In the book, the author tells readers to appreciate their belongings, not a bad idea, until you realize she means to have an actual conversation with your clothes. \u201cThank you for making me beautiful,\u201d we are told to tell our accessories as we remove them. Objects are worth keeping in her worldview only if they give us joy, a me-focused perspective that gets everything backward.<\/p>\n
Why not thank God for making us beautiful? We are all \u201cwonderfully made,\u201d as Psalm 139 reminds us, not because our accessories are working so hard but because our God is loving us so much, every minute, every day since before time began. Why do we tend to forget that and go searching for \u201cmagic\u201d in books and classes and movements?<\/p>\n
There is no magic, and that\u2019s the good news, because magic isn\u2019t real; magic is a slight of hand. God\u2019s love for us is anything but. God holds each one of us in His hand and finds us good, lovable, worth saving, even when we are fickle and fraught with flaws. When we look at life through the lens of God\u2019s unconditional love, we can find joy everywhere, maybe even in a cluttered draw full of balled-up socks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back when Olivia was in preschool, she went through a brief period of hoarding. I\u2019m not talking about holding on to too many favorite toys; I\u2019m talking about hiding deflated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[166,101,540,500],"class_list":["post-6040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-lines","tag-clutter","tag-life-lines","tag-psalm-139","tag-unconditional-love"],"yoast_head":"\n