As far back in life as I recall, I have been one who plans. As a child, I was taking notes, listening to people around me speaking of what they liked, what they desired.
What to get for them for Christmas ~ In July!
By 7 years in age, I had known what my mission in life was, for a few years, why I was on the Earth. My personal purpose.
For as long as I was alive it was my mission to do good in the world, to do things that were conducive to the happiness of others. Occasionally, for my own delight.
People can make up their mind to be happy or less than happy. Doing kindnesses for others facilitates being happy.
Many grains of sand make a beach.
Many bricks make up a house or building.
Many drops of water make an ocean or a lake.
Many bubbles make a bubble bath.
People must choose to be happy, giving them little reasons can help though it's ultimately up to each person to decide.
In the past 2 decades or so, after the trend of home decor that leaned toward Victorian style. Then, it was Country Victorian. Then, just Country Style. Then, French Cottage/Shabby Chic. Then, some of the styles were merged in different combinations.
After all the different styles, many people felt a sense of being overwhelmed, hemmed in by so much stuff.
Starting out in life, as a girl in late teens - early 20s, my desire was to just be. Since I was living in Hawai'i, I just wanted to be at the beach. Just feel the sun & trade winds on my skin. Just go to Bobby McGees with a group of people who were fun to be around.
Just go with my boyfriend, Michael, to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Honolulu. Then walk around Waikiki, holding hands, a kiss here & there as we walked around, talking, laughing. People would comment that we were a beautiful couple. Both fair skinned, blonde with light colored eyes.
Plus, the way we looked so happy, together. There is something to be said for a long-term relationship with someone who makes you feel cherished. At that time in life, 6 months was a long-term relationship.
We didn't have "the talk", it wasn't necessary, we were both exclusively dating each other, it was a mutual understanding for us.
For me as well as Michael, dating was seeing each other exclusively. It did include a bit of making out, no groping of a sexual nature. Nothing of a sexual nature. He wanted to wait for marriage. As did I.
Just being with someone who made me feel safe. From his haircut & confident demeanor it was obvious that he was in the USAF. People were surprised that I was, too & we were the same rank.
Time moves us all forward. For those who catch the wave of change, they move forward to find their passions in life.
For some people, who remain stuck, they self-stagnate then turn to unhealthy practices. Substance abuse, heavy nicotine addiction, hoarding, overeating, miring for so long that they are unable to climb up out of the abyss. If nothing happens to propel them to change or no person helps them, they will eventually pass on that way.
Often, the addictions lead to an early death. So sad.
Here is where the climactic truth begins. The chlamydial life pain.
Many stories that are said to be true, of experiences with visitations by spirits. As often as the identity of the spirit is known to the living observer, sometimes it's someone they didn't know.
Haunting, just the same.
From the many decades, even centuries of conditioning, many people fear the visitation in the form of paranormal events. It's a part of everyday life to me as it has been for my whole life.
Often the entity is attached to certain items, certain places. Sometimes attached to a living person who may or may not be able to help them. The strongest barrier is for the living to actually acknowledge the entity. Most of the living won't.
Contrary to the many paranormal stories, You Tube videos, ghost tours, etc, most encounters are harmless.
The undertone of it is still fear.
Ostracized for even associating with someone who has strong ESP.
Also known as intuition.
One camp says intuition is hogwash, just lucky guesses.
One camp says to trust your gut feeling or trust your intuition.
My camp is full of bowers of flowers, laughter, beautiful music, smiles. It has become more so since I began listening to my intuition, my gut feeling, if you will.
Please dig through the word salad to the meat of this idea.
Mmm, meat, good, mmm, potatoes, good.
There is one current running through encounters of my own as well as those described by others. It's that many entities can't or won't move on because they are still strongly attached to a place, prior possessions or even people. They can't or won't let go of it.
If you have ever had a feng shui attack, a few rounds of decluttering, letting go of that which once served you which no longer does.
You may know the deep relief of letting go.
AKA less is more.
Letting go while being alive is far easier for those who are among the living than it is for those who have passed away from living in a body. Couldn't let go of earthly trappings.
Passing on without ever letting go.
It seems like an earth life principle though it goes far deeper into a spiritual principle. Letting go of things that no longer serve you, letting go of living people who are unhealthy to be around.
Letting go while still in living form is by far, easier than when a person passes into spiritual form still clinging to people, things, places that they didn't or couldn't let go of in life.
This directly addresses life, also of home decor that is the current trend. The movement of minimalistic living. The movement of minimalism at different levels. Also known as Swedish Death Cleaning, clearing, downsizing.
Adopting principles of Feng Shui.
Peeps, it's more difficult than that.
Things are only things, you might think.
Those things hold memories that many people are emotionally attached to. The memories of happy times, people we love, places we have been, the essence of a time when life was so good. A particularly happy event or occasion.
It's really the memories & loved ones that are cherished. The things are tangible representations of that person, place or happy time. Sellers of trinkets at touristy locations thrive on this desire to have something tangible.
Letting go can feel like a betrayal of that which we hold dear.
In truth?
Most of letting go digs deep into the very base of these.
Letting go is actually a way to honor them.
This is why it frees us emotionally, spiritually.
Yes, it even frees us of the feeling of being hemmed in by clutter.
The tricky part is to be ready to let things go.
Something that put me on the track to clutter was becoming friends with a woman who I found to be fascinating. She had lived in the same house with all of her stuff for at least 10 years. I was just starting out. Had only been married for 3 years. My baby was almost 1 year old. A lot of my time & resources were devoted to her.
The friend's home had a lot of everything.
Artful, tasteful clutter.
She constantly remarked at how stark my home was. How barren it was of style, of anything.
At this point I will say that it was up to me, I voluntarily took her words to heart, I began collecting "stuff". The friendship with the woman soured when I discovered her volatile temper. She put me on full blast three times in private, twice in public. At a crowded restaurant on Hickam AFB, she was so loud, so aggressive. The other people there, were very concerned. Two people asked the manager to do something about the loud, crazed woman ranting & raving without taking a breath. The manager was going to call the cops if she didn't calm down.
If I even said anything it would fuel her verbal attack on me, so, mostly I said nothing.
With a bully like her, you can't win.
Never knowing what would set her off, walking on eggshells around a tyrant is not a friendship.
It's a very agonizing feeling. Her tirades threw me into some very deep depression & anxious times. Even my small children were astonished that I just stood silent while the woman went on & on for up to 1/2 hour which felt like longer. She would start out, then, become louder, more vicious the longer she went on.
I had to back off, way off, end the association for my well-being.
Having learned to avoid that sort of abusive person, life is better.
Because I had decluttered my own home, then, helped a couple of very minor clutter cases. In the past when I helped other people to declutter, if they were willing to do it yet not quite ready, they would start accumulating all over again afterward.
The change begins internally then the change can be external. A person must be ready to let go, make internal changes after letting go, revel in the freedom to breathe a bit easier.
WARNING
Change can be unsettling. Even a baby being born must struggle to adjust to its new environment after the struggle of being born. Many people may even cry like a baby as they adjust to their new reality.
I did.
In present day, going through a decluttering is an emotional roller coaster. Sorting through items from different stages in my life. Just as I think it will get easier, an emotional time bomb appears. It's then that I used to stop for that day which sometimes turned into a week or more.
With my pup who is very curious about everything, it adds a slight delay. He needs to sniff everything. Also, he must go out occasionally to make fudge or lemonade.
The difference is that after uncovering the spiritual principles of attachment & detaching, it makes letting go more meaningful.
As much fun as it would be to come back in spirit form to haunt & scare the crap out of some people who might deserve the scare.
I just say - "nah".
Moving on is more precious than any of that could ever be.
There's a plus!
Plus, if I can move forward in life, I can only imagine the richness of moving forward without the trappings of Earthly thingamabobs.
