My reason for a garage sale was to eliminate as many of the bins
packed with treasures no longer desired. We priced everything to sell and if someone offered us less, more often than not, we accepted. I am happy to report that our recent garage sale was a big success, and we have made additional strides in our goal to lighten up and clear the space.
Our grandson Peter, age 9, had another goal, however. He brought over games and DVDs and puzzles and other items to sell, and he eagerly watched his pile dwindle and his cash mount. His goal was to make some cash.
Our different goals highlighted for me our very different stages in life. He needs money to acquire what matters to him now at his young age, and he doesn't have many ways yet to make money. I, on the other hand, want to use my energy in ways other than acquiring stuff and then taking care of it, shuffling and sorting it. I still have plenty of stuff, trust me, and I love creating a home pleasing to the eye, but that pleasure comes these days from having much less than in my younger years. I don't think that is an uncommon feeling at my stage of life.
Not everyone feels that way, however.
I wonder how many times during our garage sale I heard someone, usually an older person, say, "I shouldn't even be here. I don't need one more thing." Usually I just smiled and maybe said, "I understand," but what I actually thought was "Then why are you here."
Garage Sales as Life Review
Of course, garage sales are also opportunities to share memories.
I have collected colorful and useful linen for years--tablecloths and dresser scarves and dish towels etc--and have loved using them. I like ironing, so using them has been more a pleasure than a chore. Over the last few years I have dispersed that huge collection (the picture is from an earlier garage sale) and been delighted when young women have told me about using them to create charming dresses for little girls or cafe curtains for bungalow kitchens, for example.
Few people express interest in collecting linen, however, but instead seeing many of my pieces generates memories of Grandma's kitchen or the dining room table at Christmases long past gone. "My mother had a towel just like this." For a few minutes these memories swirl in our garage.
We all need time and space to share memories.
Collecting, but not Using
What always distresses me at garage sales, however, are the people who tell me all the things they have, but never use. One woman told me about her many, many sets of beautiful dishes. She even showed me a small tureen she bought at another sale. "Oh, you must so enjoy setting your table," I said. She looked both horrified and embarrassed, telling me she never uses any of it. I asked her what she was saving it all for, but she didn't have an answer. I felt such sadness for her.
Opportunities for Spiritual Growth
If I were sitting in spiritual direction, with some of these individuals, I would ask them to explore their feelings about "stuff" and the ongoing desire for more in their life or their inability to let go. How is God, the Divine, the Sacred present to them or moving in their life as they go to garage sale after garage sale? What is the invitation in their life right now? What is waiting for them at the bottom of the pile?
Peter was pleased with the money he earned. I was pleased with all the inventory that moved to a new home. And, as always, there are gifts along the way.
An Invitation
How are you doing with all you have accumulated over the years? I would love to know.
"That's my lane. I'm learning how to let others run in their lanes while I stick with mine."
Joanna Gaines
The HGTV star and entrepreneur extraordinaire, Joanna Gaines, runs in several lanes at the same time, I think, but this statement in her magazine Magnolia made me pause and reflect.
What's my lane? What are my gifts? Passions? Where is it I most need to focus and how is it I need to share my gifts and live my passions?
August turning into September feels like the right time to sit with those questions once again, and I like this image of a lane--a bike lane, a country lane, side by side interstate lanes with the lane on the right for slower moving traffic.
I know there are some things I do well (my lanes) and some things I don't do well and don't even want to do well (some one else's lanes) and I know sometimes lanes turn into trails past unexpected views and sometimes they dead end. The tolls on some lanes are high, but sometimes the cost is worth it. By now, at age 69, I have traveled many lanes and I am better at changing lanes when it is necessary.
It is my job to recognize those lanes and move forward on them.
Well, this metaphor could go on and on, just like some lanes, but you get the idea.
Here's what I need to remember: When I take time to listen to my inner voice, to open my heart to the movement of God within me and around me, I become clearer about which lane to follow.
An Invitation
What is your lane? I would love to know.
One of the categories on my weekly "To Do" list is "Leftovers." This category lists items I didn't complete in a given week, but still intend to do. Week after week this summer I transferred two items.
1. Take several pieces of jewelry to someone who can repair them.
2. Make an appointment with Bradshaw Funeral and Cremation Services to arrange for green cremation of our bodies after we have died.
This week I finally acted on both items, and, of course, after doing them, I wondered what took me so long? Why did I delay? After all, I had checked off many tasks each week, so why did I procrastinate about these two assignments?
Of course, sometimes when a task is ignored long enough, the need for it disappears. I certainly could have decided that having these various pieces of jewelry repaired was not necessary. I have more than enough jewelry, but these are pieces I have worn often and would enjoy wearing them again. In the case of planning ahead for our cremation, I could decide to leave those arrangements to our family when the time comes, but does that make sense when we can do it now?
Some items I tell myself I need to do never make it to my "to do" list--tasks like sorting and organizing our boxes of photographs or like consulting with someone about how to improve the look and use of this blog. Both of these things weigh on me, but I know I will move them into the "leftover" category week after week, and I just don't want that kind of pressure.
Much of our daily life can be sorted into "easy tasks" and "hard tasks." Those are different for each of us, of course, but how we respond indicates a lot about who we are now, what is important to us now, and how we are living our life. It occurs to me that our sorting process is part of attempting to live a balanced life. Fixing my jewelry feels like living in the present moment, deciding how to accessorize today's outfit, but with a bow to the past, remembering when I was given a piece or where I bought it. Our green cremation plans acknowledge our mortality, which is the future for each of us.
Where am I going with this? To be honest, I don't actually know, but I think intentional reflection about how we spend our days, the easy and the difficult, is important. I have today, and I pray I have tomorrow--many tomorrows, but I don't have a crystal ball to give me my personal timeline. I just need to do the best I can to live with grace and purpose.
An Invitation
What is on your "leftovers" list? What is your criteria for what you do and don't do? I would love to know.
NOTE: You can find out about Green Cremation here.
When my mother was still alive, one of her late afternoon habits was to go up to the bedroom she and my father shared and turn on the dresser light, even if it wasn't yet dark. That way when they went up the stairs at bedtime a light showed them the way.
If I was home visiting, she turned on a light in my bedroom, too.
I never thought much about this daily ritual until she died.
I missed her light.
I don't know if Mom thought of her light routine as a spiritual practice or even as a touch of love, but that's how it seems to me. She knew that the dark comes, but she also knew she could shine a light through the dark.
Recent days have seemed dark in our country, and not just because of the eclipse. More than ever we need signs of light, but, of course, the way to create light is to BE the light. Do your remember the children's song sung so often in Sunday School?
This little light of mine.
I'm going to let it shine.
Let it shine.
Let it shine.
Let it shine.
The children stand with light on their faces and as they sing, they lift one finger in the air to symbolize the light they possess, the light they are in the world.
I hasten to add I am not talking about torches of fire. Instead I am calling forth our own glowing light, the light of our essence, the light we possess for love of the Divine, love of family and friends, love of country and the hope of all we can be.
The other day a friend sent me this Sandra Boynton drawing
because, she said, it made her think of me. I generally sign letters and cards and even emails with either "Love and Light" or "Light Blessings." Blessings and love pair naturally with light, growing from the light, as well as extending into the light.
Many days I try to channel my mother's light and turn on our bedroom dresser light before dark and also, a lamp in the window of the room we call "the snug," which is in the front of the house and can be seen by all who pass. This simple act, a spiritual practice, really, reminds me to let my light shine.
The world needs my light.
The world needs your light.
Love and Light and Light Blessings, too, Nancy
An Invitation
How do you let your light shine? I would love to know.
NOTE: I recommend this video --you will feel lighter. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-orleans-mayor-confederate-monument_us_5995a3d3e4b0d0d2cc84c9a7
How often these days I want to hide out in my garret, specifically, in my comfortable chair tucked in a corner. I want to extend my morning meditation time into mid morning and beyond. Then when I finally take a shower I am reluctant to turn off the water and get dressed.
Focusing on the writing work I have challenged myself to do has become harder. Like those first weeks after the election and then the inauguration, I am drawn to online news reports and to having the radio on in the background as I try to work at my desk.
I am outraged and fearful. The white supremacists turn my stomach, but it is the president's behavior that upsets and concerns me even more. How close are we to a national brawl where shouting is the norm?
What to Do? How to respond?
I can't give you those answers. Each of us has to decide for ourselves what we can do and how to respond, but first, before any action, there needs to be a kind of stillness. I need to remember what grounds me, what clarifies next steps and fortifies me for action.
For some that may mean walking along the river or reading to a grandchild or cooking a pot of soup or needlepointing or swimming laps or even washing the car.
For some it may mean walking a labyrinth or reading scripture or writing in a journal. Attending a worship service, praying or sitting motionless on a meditation cushion.
Each one of these activities can be a spiritual practice, a threshold into deeper relationship with divine presence. Each one of these practices can be a way to center and open to what we are asked to do and how we are asked to respond and be in these troubled times.
Words to Consider
You do not need to know precisely what is
happening, or exactly where it is all going.
What you need is to recognize the possibilities
challenges offered by the present moment, and
to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.
Thomas Merton
Teach me to be love,
as You are Love;
Lead me through each fear;
Hold my hand as I walk through
valleys of doubt each day,
That I may know your peace.
adapted from Psalm 27
The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and
do something. Don't wait for good things to happen
to you. If you go out and make some good things
happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will
fill yourself with hope.
Barak Obama
An Invitation
What do you do to come to stillness and awareness of the divine presence? I would love to know.
This past weekend we attended our nephew Brandon's wedding. An elegant and meaningful celebration, full of love and joy. Another happy August event.
August is a big month for celebrating in our household. Along with our anniversary (46 years this year), we celebrate daughter Kate's birthday, my father's birthday, Kate and Mike's anniversary and many other birthdays and anniversaries of family and friends. My mother's birthday was in August, too.
We could be eating cake almost every day this month!
Sometimes it is challenging to celebrate, however, when news of violence and hate invades. How many times have we needed our faith communities this past year? We have needed consolation and shelter, but also encouragement and the reminder to be brave. This last Sunday was no exception.
Not only did the sermon help, but the moment of silent reflection after the reading of a lesson, and, of course, sharing the peace and receiving the bread and wine. Those are the things that ground me, that remind me of the ongoing embrace of God. Those are the things that clarify all over again that what God wants for us is to love one another and to know that we were each created in the image of God. There is no room for hate in God's love.
On the way out of church I mentioned to one of the pastor's how we had been to a beautiful wedding and what a happy event it was. I didn't feel guilty about relishing the celebration, but it was a bit hard to reconcile the joy when violence was erupting in Charlottesville. He reminded me that life is messy, and that we are here for each other in our joys and in our sorrows. Yes.
An Invitation
What are you doing to respond to both the joys and the sorrows in your life and in the life you witness around you? What grounds your every breath? I would love to know.
NOTE: I recommend the following post with its thoughts about staying grounded in the current political climate. https://jenniferhofmann.com/sleeping-near-forest-fire/
Granddaughter Maren (age 14) came home from camp yesterday. For 17 days she canoed in Quetico, across the Minnesota-Canada border, and as you can see she is a strong, empowered young woman.
I am eager to learn the details about her camper colleagues and counselor, plus details about portages crossed, miles canoed, territory covered, wildlife seen. I also wonder about the challenges met and lessons learned.
Even though this was not her first time at Widjiwagan, this was the first time she wasn't going with her best friend, and she was a bit nervous about being with girls she didn't know. After all there you are in the wilderness and there is no alternative, but to keep on paddling. And there is no cell phone coverage, even if you had your phone with you.
Her previous Widji experiences have been so positive, but what if this one wasn't? She wondered if her good fortune was about to run out. Certainly it is true that not every event and opportunity in her life will be stellar. I am sure there will be times when she will just want something to end, to go home and crawl into the security of her own bed.
But here's the thing about Maren: She not only pushes through her own anxiety, she helps others push through their anxieties, too. She may not feel confident, but she is a confident presence and inspires it in others. She is brave and self-aware, always giving her best, and frankly, her best shines.
A friend from church remarked how Maren added to her Easter morning experience with her calm, steady demeanor. I know my friend was being nice to this besotted grandmother, but I also know what she said is true, and it brings tears to my eyes when I think of Maren, tall and sure, during the Gospel processional. Of course, I love her fun-loving, playful, and silly side, too. How often I seem to catch glimpses of her holy essence.
I wouldn't presume to tell her who I think God created her to be, but I can have a role in supporting her understanding and development of that person. And what a privilege that is.
Welcome home, Wonder Woman Maren! (Note the Wonder Woman hat a friend knit for her.)
An Invitation
Do you have any young Wonder Women in your life? I would love to know.)
NOTE: Maren and her Widji experiences when she was 12 inspired two earlier posts here and here.
My reason for a garage sale was to eliminate as many of the bins
