Cheech and Chong had something right in their classic comedy routine.
[Knock, knock] “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Dave, let me in, I got the stuff.”
[pause]
“Dave’s not here.”
(very loosely paraphrased from memory)
I was always particularly fond of this routine because they use my name, Dave. But when it comes to someone bringing stuff into my life (including me) I now often respond in similar fashion, “Dave’s not here.”
The reality is none of us own anything.
We buy, borrow, sometimes steal (shame on us), stuff that we may or may not use for a time, but in reality we never own it.
If you were to die today, what would you take with you?
Nothing.
Because it was never yours to take. It was only yours to use for a time.
So if I don’t own anything, who does own it? The person or being that created it. For me that person and being is God. He owns it all.
What a relief it was to finally understand that. It’s not mine, so I am just taking care of it for someone else.
Suddenly, my eyes were opened, and I looked around “my” condo space and asked, “Who brought all this stuff in here?”
It was me. My floor plan had evolved to provide a pathway from the entrance to the stairs to the loft, a diagonal line from one corner to its opposite. The rest of the place is full of stuff. Stuff I hardly ever use (read “never”). Stuff I thought had some value until I tried to sell it, and then could not find anyone to take for free.
I’m still buried under piles of CDs and books and furniture and some items dating back to childhood. My goal is to do some serious Winter/Spring cleaning, by either selling, donating or throwing away the things I don’t need, to free up space for me to simply live and breathe.
I might even blog more often.
What would you do with with the space created by getting rid of your “stuff?”