One of the greatest tyrants in my own life has been the stuff that surrounded me. Stuff to the left of him. Stuff to the right of him. Into the valley of stuff rode the would-be hero.
As a computer entrepreneur I collected books and papers that supposedly would support my efforts at financial conquest. As a would-be health expert I collected books and articles that I would read some day. As a spiritual student I collected masses of books, papers, and tape sets that would support my enlightenment. Actually some of those really helped my spiritual growth.
My potential Armageddon wasn’t from fire. It was from a possible avalanche of stuff.
Hermes said “As above so below. As below so above.” You might say that having a lot of stuff in the physical plane corresponds to having a lot of stuff in the mental and emotional planes.
Although I was a legend in my own mind, I wound up getting evicted from my apartment shortly after the dot com crash.
I was able to put some stuff into a five by ten storage room. And I was able to give away some stuff. But most of it wound up in the dumpsters. There simply wasn’t enough time to get it all into dumpsters before the sheriff would arrive at my doorstep. If I happened to be there, he would exercise force to get me away from my former home and my beloved stuff.
However, I did have the time to drop my college diplomas into the dumpster. I did this with little ceremony. But it was quite a turning point in my life. All of that so-called education didn’t do me much good. Here was this “educated”, hard working, “spiritually advanced”, well meaning person becoming homeless.
You would think that this would devastate me.
The surprise was that my last walk out of my home brought an unbelievable sense of freedom. Heavy mental and emotional energy lifted off of me. Everything looked bright and alive. I felt bright and alive. I was bright and alive.
Life became an adventure, a series of great learning experiences, and a fast track to bliss. But that’s another story.
May the bliss be with you.
Jim
Thank you for sharing your bliss Jim! Blessings and Love!
This lesson was offered to me repeatedly through material ‘losses’ in my life. I struggled with finding the answer because, of course, I misunderstood the lesson. Finally, two years ago, I took steps to lighten my own load in a way quite similar to the experience you described sans the eviction notice and the 5×10 storage. I completely filled two large dumpsters and gave away everything else that would not fit into the back of a 1990 Honda Civic in one packing.
I have never been able to succinctly explain to anyone the feeling of freedom and clarity that followed. At last there was room for me in my life. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I have learned more from my losses and the times of what seemed like hardship, than I ever did being comfortable and in my normal routine. Thanks Jim for the insights.
Well Mr. Jim, I am so glad that you trimmed your beard. Okay, don’t take offense, but today’s blog post must have been directed at my sub-conscious and that is why I was *asked* to read your post from twitter. (Nice photo, by the way).
Looking further through your blog and finding this post really has hit home,as they say.
I might guess that many of us are doing the very same thing and it takes allot of courage to step *out side the box* and channel the thinking away from the groups of those wishing to obtain more and more material things. Us/we collectors of stuff. LOL..just thought of the George Carlin bit about *STUFF*.
While I have not experienced your exact circumstances of becoming free of all those attachments..I have been at one time, daring enough to downsize and felt the freedom that you and these other fine folks speak of.
And as of lately, have been thinking of what is needed to do that again, and finally after 53 years of chasing the dream..feel ready to let go and let my life just *be*.
Thank you for sharing,
Gayle