ATTENTION EVERYONE, what you are about to read is not mine.  It is my friend, colleague and fellow Goddess’s words….. Juli DuBois.  She doesn’t have a blog yet, so posted this on her facebook page yesterday.  If you feel like reaching out and connecting with Juli after reading this, just click on her name there.  I am sharing with you, because it’s a profound read, especially the bit about ex-husbands.
So…please enjoy!
I’m amazed at how this “simplify” bug works. This is the third time this year, I’ve gotten it… and about the sixth time in the last twelve months. So far I’ve given away furniture, dishes, electronics, clothing that I’ve asked myself while packing away: “I bought this – why?!”… you name it and it’s probably been given away or donated. Now I’m at it again.

Which is doubly amazing given the fact I’ve always gotten rid of something “old” whenever something “new” comes into my home. My entire life, I’ve done this – and still, there is “too much stuff” going on over here.

Have YOU ever been there – done this? Hit a moment of knowing that “stuff”, especially the stuff that has no real meaning to YOU, is just taking up valuable space and consuming your valuable energy to care for it all? Realized that, although you had no plans to do it, somehow you bought into the mass mentality of consumerism? Or (the biggie in my own personal book of experience) held onto stuff from your past – i.e. relationships, family heritage, marriage, friendships – and kept the memory (past) alive each and every time you looked at the stuff that represented it to you? Have you ever wondered, while going through your walk-in closet, if maybe just the size of the closet has been feeding your shoe addiction or causing the notion to appear in your head (seemingly randomly) that said closet NEEDS to be filled? I know I have done all of the above… and more. I’m human enough to admit that I hope I am not alone in having done it.

No more. Na-huh. Done. Stuff is stuff. It has no meaning other the the meaning I assign it.

Stuff does have it’s own energy though, such as the “momentos” from my marriage. Out of respect for that energy, if my ex-husband didn’t want it… it’s gone.

I have the ex-husband, why do I need the momentos? *she says, tongue in cheek*
It’s the same with many other “keepsakes” that I found to be not-so-keepable, stuff I was hanging onto simply because so-and-so gave it to me an eon ago. Then there’s the guilt aspect – the “OMGosh, if so-and-so knew I was donating this their feelings would be crushed” kind of guilt.
It is simply never ending the “stuff” we get to wade through while wading through the stuff.

And therein lies the joy, my friend. The “stuff” we get to pull out, acknowledge, heal, release – and finally – allow ourselves to let go of! Physically, emotionally, mentally, visually, psychically, spiritually, energetically… Gone!

So maybe it’s not the “simplify” bug that I’m dealing with here. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the “freedom” bug. Or, maybe they are one and the same bug… just heads and tails of one another in their bugdom.

~ Juli DuBois