This post was originally published in July 2007. True then, true now. Going to bed for in the morning I’m off and away for a couple of weeks of rest and renewal. One week house sitting and then another week flat sitting.
At times like this
when it’s getting late and
I need to get to bed and
I’d like to write a post, yet
there are SO many possibilities and
I can’t make up my mind
what to write about
I usually just go to bed, instead.
Many thanks to Sangha friends in Vancouver for the use of the photograph.
I’m showing solidarity with a couple close to me who are going through their life long ‘treasures’. ‘Downsizing doesn’t even begin to describe the process they are going through at the moment. In this article, A Beginner’s Guide To Swedish Death Cleaning, (It’s nowhere near as horrifying as it sounds) there is a compassionate and practical idea to help the process of letting go of ones ‘treasures’, by retaining some of them. That is to create a Throwaway Box filled with a few carefully selected items that mean a lot to oneself, but nothing to anyone else. This is part of the article mentioned above.
This box could hold anything from “old love letters, programs, memories from travelling” to “a dried flower, a stone with a funny shape, or a little, beautiful shell”. The idea is that your friends or family may look through the box, but have permission (from you!) to get rid of anything inside. And of course, while you’re still around, you get to enjoy all your lovely little things.
I started my box this evening. It looks like I want to retain items that harbour fond memories of people, places and events, it might be my ‘gratitude’ box. The striped piece of fabric relates to my mother who kept it in her sewing box. The purse was given to me by a ‘Dharma Uncle’ when travelling in Japan in 2005. Symbolizing my dharma family, through Rev. Master Jiyu, to multiple ‘relatives’ in Japan. There is another item that will go into the box from relatives in Malasia and Taiwan.
It is proving quite easy to gather these items since they have been populating several draws I use for stationary. Already I can see I don’t need to have so many pens!
Let the Swedish death cleaning begin. You’ll have to read the article to understand what this is all about. No, I’m not about to die, as far as I know, just that I’d like to make the task a of dealing with my belongings a pleasant one when, I do.
In this tradition, we do not use petitioning prayer but that doesn’t stop some of us reverting to childhood habits, when in extremity. All the while knowing full well that the universe is not answerable to my personal will. So why the other evening was I saying, as if using a mantra:
Let there be thunder!
Let there be lightning!
Let there be rain!
and wind!
Like many people in Britain, I was extremely uncomfortable with the air pressure that builds up around thunderstorms. My mind had turned to ‘mush’ and it seemed impossible to be still mentally or physically. But I sat anyway, in extremity, with a short blast of the above ‘mantra’ to help myself. Sometimes it just helps to recite a mantra, silently to oneself while knowing full well that the universe is not answerable to my personal will.
