A few days ago, I shared an article by Sue Fulmore about clutter. What I loved about it is that she took it deeper than the clutter we accumulate on the surface asking the question: I wonder if you sense this too in your inner life?
My friend, Charlain Martin commented on my post about how her Boaz’s ADD tended to create squirrel stashes here and there.
First, that is a question that I was pondering going into my beach vacation away. I knew I needed to clean out my insides in order to manifest a more confident, God valued view on the outside. Second, my friend had no idea how profound that phrase “squirrel stashes” would be in my pursuit for answers.
My mom Shirley was nicknamed squirrely Shirley. This was because she befriended all the squirrels in our neighborhood. She named them. She fed them. She talked to them. Her favorite was Rambo, and he was an extremely robust guy because he ate whatever mom would give him and all the bird feed. He would hang off that birdfeeder upside down and get to the birdseed just like the birds.
She was also a hoarder. However, she was not always a hoarder. As I draw the path of my own life in the rearview, I can see the tragic events that happened in our lives growing up that started to chip away at her identity too. As tragedy struck, chaos ensued and the need to hold onto things became more and more important to her. Later in her life, as she faced retirement, and we moved her closer to her children the need to hold on was less, yet, still present.
Because of my mother’s hoarding I was a little over the top at avoiding accumulating things in my home. My mother would wince sometimes when I threw things out, donated things to charity or sold books and things. I am not incredibly sentimental because I truly believe I can’t take it with me, so it is just not that important. However, I am not clutter free by a long shot, I have just compartmentalized my clutter. That goes for outside and inside.
Sitting beside my couch is my mother’s rolly box. It is an old antique box on wheels that holds all of my Christmas ornaments. It also serves as my end table. however, it is actually a catch all book and paper stash pile. Its books I am reading through, or want to read, articles I have printed for great info, bills, coupons, journals and other things. It drives me crazy. I will clean it up and without considerable intention it will pile up again.
My refrigerator broke the other day and I had to buy a new one. In the process of installing the refrigerator we had to turn the water off under the sink. WOW did we find a squirrely stash of mess under my sink. Sometimes I do not address things until the chaos of it is exposed. I went out the next day, bought plastic bins and organized the things under my sink. I might have a bathroom sink in need of this tender loving care as well.
I discovered that I had a lot of clutter hidden under sinks and in closets. That is exactly how I feel about my inner self.
Clutter of the soul is a stash of another kind. We pack in more and more and more junk trying not to deal with the struggle going on there. Problem is when you have tragedy, pain, sadness, fear, anger, frustration and so on stuffed down in your body it has no other option but to spill out in the physical.
Physical spillage can be manifested in many different ways. Joint pain, migraines, chronic diseases. It could be that you are underweight, or overweight, or eating like you are overweight and binging it out to stay underweight. It can be alcohol or drug abuse, smoking, overspending. It can be sexual promiscuity, or it can be a complete wall put up to avoid relationships. So, so many things.
What are you hoarding in your body that is spilling out in the physical? For me it is cyclical, and I am on a journey to stop the cycles. Stop the abuse of my own body.
Sometimes I am that girl going after life with an incredible energy and sometimes I am running on empty. When I am empty, I have tendencies to wallow, to eat out, to shop, to buy coffee. I do not know what your tendencies are but listen, to find healing we have to find something else to replace the empty regurgitation of the same old things.
I went on vacation and spent hours considering all of my bad habits and figured out good, healthy ways to replace those bad habits. I created a vision board that I can read every day when I get up or when I walk by. I created I am statements that I also read every day. I created a new schedule, made a plan for small steps to reach each one and I am taking the plunge.
I know life isn’t perfect, and it takes time to undo the damage that I have done in dealing with the hard things. There are healthier ways to clean up those stashes of shame, or pain, or…. you name it. Just like I will never, ever return to an abusive relationship, Susanne is choosing today to break those cycles of shame and replace them with healthy squirrel stashes that work towards physical health, spiritual health, mental health, and financial health. Let’s stash some healing into our bodies.
One thing about my mother’s stashes of stuff. It all had meaning. Every piece had an origin. Every piece had a story. Every piece was valuable to her. Let’s make what we hold onto valuable to us and throw out the items that do not have good origin or story behind it.
The origin of our body is in scripture: God’s temple. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself. I COR 6:19 ESV. Jesus is overturning tables because of my choices, and I need to be a better steward. Truth hurts so much, but the good news is truth also heals once we embrace it.
Susanne Moore 