“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” – Anne Lamott

I love the simplicity of venturing out every week to the local CSA farm where we get our produce.

Tromping through the fields to gather fresh flowers, pick raspberries (which never make it past the car ride home), feel the smooth, shiny skins of the chili peppers, allow the wafting scents of cilantro to transport me. I wrote about my new love affair with the farm in my blog called Fresh, Alive, Real…Food.

Mostly what I love in my weekly communions with these plants and vegetables, is the immediate calming effect they have on me. No matter what kind of day I’m having, it seems that I’m always brought back to my center; welcomed, embraced, nurtured. It’s like this unassuming patch of land knows me. And I’m home, doing this simple and ancient thing of gathering.

Gathering my food. Gathering flowers. Gathering my thoughts. Gathering the parts of myself that have gone missing or astray as in…

Re-member-ing.

The plants don’t care that my hair is disheveled. Or that I’m completely fried. Or that the container I use to haul our weekly bounty is an old plastic laundry basket. They seem glad to have me back no matter what.

The fields have been quiet for months now, tucked beneath a yummy blanket of snow.

I’ve enjoyed the down time. The time to reflect; to gather in a different way. Gathering firewood. Gathering with friends. Gathering my resources.

Like new life stirring below ground…

Preparing for a glorious return.

“There is nothing either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.” –Shakespeare, Hamlet

Have you ever stopped whatever you were doing to simply observe your thoughts? Yes, to do nothing else but watch the nonstop activity of the mind without doing anything to fix or change what’s going on in there?

If you took that experience and multiplied it by 24 hours and then again by 14 days, that basically describes the exotic two-week “vacation” I took in Greece last year. For practiced meditators like my husband, it’s called a meditation retreat. Depending on the day you ask me, a relative newbie to these closed-eye marathons, it’s called being-with-a-mind-that-won’t-shut-up… or, just plain hell.

This is not your typical ascetic experience where you sit in a lotus position for hours on end. This retreat is the deluxe version held at a beautiful hotel with sweeping views of the Aegean. Every day is a feast of fabulous 70-degree weather, gourmet vegetarian dinners, fun-loving participants, inspiring teachers, soul-feeding lessons in human consciousness. Two whole weeks where I am given permission (instructed, actually) to take nothing seriously…

…and do absolutely nothing.

Heaven, you might say, except for the fact that I feel completely consumed by the orgy of thinking that is taking place in my mind. Watching the gluttony of self-importance churning in my head is exhausting, even nauseating sometimes. And my whole body hurts. The fact that I happen to be on one of the most beautiful places on the planet is lost on me.

So why do something in paradise that is so not pleasing?  I ask myself this question countless times, while I thrash about like an addict in rehab, ready to bolt at any minute. The answer: “Week two.”

Disarming the monkey mind (ego) and unwinding from a lifetime of spinning “very important” thought-bulletins like “I need a cup of coffee…Caffeine is bad…My back hurts… I hate this…I love this… I signed up for this?! …Thirteen-and-a-half days to go… Everyone is ‘getting this’ but me…My back hurts … ” – takes time.

It’s not the thoughts themselves, I discover, but the constant chewing (identifying, personalizing, feeding, attaching to) them that is so tiring. When I stop chewing, the relief is instantaneous. Like the relief you feel in your mouth when you finally remember to spit out the tasteless wad of gum.

Though the mind has no concept of this (and never will) – and employs a spectacular array of stealth tactics to charm us back into our old habits – the alternative to a grasping way of life is pretty darn sweet. It’s the magic that happens when we choose ease. Or take nothing personally. Or surrender to that deep silent space within us that simply knows.

By the end of my second week of mindful non-doing, something begins to poke through the noise and clutter of my mind. Nothing fancy or earth shattering, really. No fireworks or big revelations.

What comes into focus is me.

Like those three-dimensional puzzles where the image pops in fully-formed when you soften your gaze: It’s the “me” that has been there all along. The me who hangs out in that timeless space where everything feels sparkly, uncomplicated, and clear.

Living in present time. Now that is paradise!

We’d love to hear from you!

• What are some of the ways you cultivate spacious detachment?
• What does it feel like to do absolutely nothing ¬– with complete awareness – for one minute?

“My life will always have dirty dishes. If this sink can become a place of contemplation, let me learn constancy here.” –Gunilla Norris, Being Home

Here’s something that mystifies me: Seeing a drainer full of dry dishes getting piled onto by a layer of wet ones because nobody bothers to put away the original set.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

This is not about blame, mind you. I have my share of quirky habits that I’m sure are just as maddening to my friends and family.

The wet-on-top-of-dry thing is just something that bothers me. To me it’s like taking the clean laundry out of the dryer and throwing it back into the washing machine – again and again– until someone takes a moment to fold the clothes and put them away. It makes no sense.

More to the point, I wonder what the effect would be if everyone on the planet took one minute to consciously tend to one thing. For us in the west maybe it could be as simple as putting away the car keys or the remote control or the reading glasses in the same place every day. Rounding up all the stray cups and glasses from the living room before going to bed. Picking up the dirty clothes off the floor and putting them into the hamper.

Takes what?  Less than a minute?

And if that’s still too much to manage, it could be as simple as sliding the chairs back under the table. Or turning out the lights in rooms that no one is using. Closing the drawers ‘til they click shut. Capping the toothpaste tube.

It’s sounds so simple doesn’t it? But if it were that simple, why is it so hard? What’s behind the resistance?

Here’s what I know: When we insert awareness into any ordinary task, and repeat it every day, we create a sense of ease and fluidity that I can only describe as effortless, spacious magic.

As one of my students wrote me once:  “Just putting the dental floss back every night in the same place has been MIND BLOWING!!  Truly! And has flowed into other areas!”

Are you up for a fun challenge?

• What can you do in one minute that would shift the energy in your space – starting today (or right this second)? Choose something that is a bit of a stretch but doesn’t overwhelm you.
• Repeat the same or similar task tomorrow and every day for a week.
• Keep it simple: One thing, one pile, one area. One minute. One week.
• Watch what happens: Allow sensations to arise; notice what goes through your mind; feel the feelings that come up without taking them personally.
• Have fun!

We’d love to hear from you!

• What did you end up doing every day with your one minute and how did it make you feel?
• How does your home or living space feel to you as a result?

“I live by the truth that ‘No’ is a complete sentence. I rest as a spiritual act.”–Anne Lamott, O Magazine

Most of us think of caring for ourselves as an extra-curricular activity. Something we squeeze into our lives at the end of the day. Or when everyone else in the family is taken care of. Or when we’re sick.

If I’ve learned anything at all about the subject as it relates to me personally and professionally it would be this: Supporting ourselves with daily doses of self-care is not optional. Without it, clearing the stress and stuff in our life becomes a tedious chore, and a big reason why most clutter clearing efforts do not last.

Self-care is not just something you do when you’re on vacation, or your circuits are fried, or you need a special treat after a long hard day at work. Self-care is something you cultivate and practice every day because it is as essential to the body and spirit as eating, or breathing.

Plus, why the heck not include it. It feels really good! The self-care model works because it is body-centered, and immediate. It softens and quiets the nonstop chatter of the critical mind. “I’m overwhelmed by stuff,” “This house is a disaster,” “If I slow down how will I get anything done?” for example, is unhinged in the presence of pure ease.

Self-care is something that you do because it supports your intentions and ongoing practice in letting go. Here are ten ways you can cultivate it (in no particular order):

1. Do at least one thing that makes your heart sing (read: love madly, adore) every day.
2. Listen to one fabulous song that is guaranteed to lift your spirits.
3. Light a candle and set an intention.
4. Take a “salt and soda” bath or shower (equal parts of coarse sea salt and Arm and Hammer baking soda).
5. Clap, dance, rattle, sing––anything to get the energy moving and awaken the senses.
6. Repeat the phrase “I choose ease,” every time you think of it and notice how your body responds.
7. Remove the word “should” from your vocabulary. Replace it with the word “could.”
8. Talk to or spend time with someone who is cheerful, optimistic, and supportive.
9. Avoid negative or sensational media and notice what it feels like after one week of “news fasting.”
10. Read or watch something every day that makes you laugh out loud.

Try each item on the list for a period of ten days. Or better yet, practice one every day for ten weeks. Notice how you feel after a while: Do you feel lighter? Calmer? More energized? Is it easier to clear out a closet or a drawer?

Bottom line: Self-care is about lightening up and having fun! If you’re not having fun you’re not clearing!

We’d love to hear from you!

• What are some of the ways that you nourish yourself?
• What helps you feel better fast?
• What is one thing you can do this week that honors and supports YOU?

“When you take care of the clutter on the inside, The clutter on the outside takes care of itself.” –Stephanie Bennett Vogt

I am a packrat.

There, I said it.

Yes, squirreled away in the dark recesses of my house I still have boxes of things I haven’t seen or used in over twenty years. I have food in the freezer that is over six months old. I have postage stamps issued during the 1984 Olympics when it cost 13 cents to send a letter first class. I have a cigar box full of those tiny keys you get when you buy a new suitcase – each pair neatly secured with a twist-tie.

I hang onto more bubble-wrap and cardboard boxes than I need “just in case.” I have computer “diskettes” with God-knows-what dating back to the early 90′s (without the technology to open them even if I wanted to see what was on them). Stacked neatly in the corner of my desk drawer is a year’s worth of price tags for clothes I’ve bought …and washed… and worn…

Most people who know me as the space clearing expert, a healer of homes, a teacher, author, and devoted messenger of hope to the clutter-weary… are surprised when I tell them I am not clutter-free.

Your home may be free of all excess, or be super organized and neat-as-a-pin, but if you live in a body that thinks thousands of thoughts a day (not all positive), feels pain and loss and fear from time to time, gets out of balance, or loses itself in the worries of the moment, I hate to break it to you: you’re not clutter-free either.

The fact is, most humans suffer one way or another from a condition called “holding on.” Me, I was born with squirrel tendencies based on a deep fear that there is not enough to go around. Softening the hard wiring of my past is my Hero’s Journey – my spiritual pathway that involves consciously clearing one suitcase key, postage stamp, and freezer-burned-lump-that-passes-as-food, at a time.

But this is good. The past fifteen years have taught me that we can soften our grip of attachment – slowly and gently – by first naming and feeling the object of our stress and distress. We can release the charge that these issues or patterns hold by taking them less personally and seriously. We can change our relationship with any thing by clearing it, or just moving it from the floor to the drawer. Yes, even a single paper clip has the potential to change our lives.

I’ve learned that by shedding light on the places we resist in ourselves, we can bring our home, and our world, back into balance – one thing, pile, and thought at a time. It’s a journey of a lifetime that we can, if we choose, even enjoy!

Would you like to lighten your load? Try this:

• What is one thing or issue about yourself that you would like to release that may be a little embarrassing to share publicly?
• Write it in the comment box of this blog.
• If you feel bold enough, press the submit button.
• If you don’t feel bold or safe enough to share it publicly, write it down on a separate piece of paper and release (burn or toss) it with awareness and compassion.
• Notice how you feel after you’ve pressed the submit button (or let it go on your own).
• Allow sensations, observe the thoughts, experience any emotional charge.
• Allow any and all feelings to arise without doing anything to fix, personalize, or second-guess them.

Name it. Feel it. Let it go.  This is “clutter clearing” at its essence.