Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 2

Releasing

A spiritual practice is an activity undertaken on a regular basis for the purpose of inducing spiritual insights and encouraging spiritual growth.

So ... clutter clearing ... as a spiritual practice?

It can be.

Think about it:

Clutter clearing invites us to release things.

I have seen three things that block us from releasing things back into the universe: 

1. A sense of responsibility for the item.

2. The fear that one might need or use the item in the future. And
3. obligation or sentimental attachment to the item.

1) A sense of responsibility

Some clients have trouble releasing items because they want to know what will happen once they are out of their keeping. There is a sense of responsibility to see that the items "get into a good home" or are otherwise properly cared for. (This is admirable, but too often is harming the client's ability to get free.)  

The spiritual practice asked of these clients is TRUST. Can we trust that the universe (God/Providence) will get the item to its proper place? Can we let go of feeling responsible for the item's future (without any shame or self-doubt?)  Can we let go of worry about the item, setting it and ourselves free, and trusting that all will be well? 

2) The fear that one might need the item in the future.
Some clients have trouble releasing items because they are uncertain whether they might need the item in the future. There is an unwillingness to let go of even long-unused items in case they want it later.

The spiritual practice asked of these clients is also TRUST. Can we trust that the universe will provide what we need when we need it? In this abundant culture, with flea markets and Amazon and community swaps and Freecycling, can we believe that we could probably find just the thing we need in the future, should the need arise? 

"Then Jesus asked them, 'When I sent you out without a purse, bag or sandals, did you lack for anything?'  'Nothing,' they answered.  Luke 22:35

3) obligation or sentimental attachment to the item.
There is nothing wrong with having a sentimental attachment to our possessions. It isn't so good if the attachment begins to dominate what is best for us. Sometimes we have items we do not enjoy but feel unable to release due to their origins.  Perhaps something was a gift from a loved one or belonged to an ancestor, and letting it go feels uncomfortable, even though we don't actually want it.

The spiritual practice in relation to sentiment and obligation is "saucha."  Saucha is a word from Sanskrit which means a purity of focus or clarity of vision. Saucha pulls us back to our core self. When we are grounded in our core, we can discern most clearly what serves us spiritually.   Items of sentiment and obligation can be the most sticky and difficult to release. Yet in our deepest core, we know that we don't need to remain attached to anything physical for our wellbeing.

Rarely do we have to endure the loss of all our most treasured possessions.  Only those in massive fires or earthquakes, or refugees from war and famine, may suffer the loss everything they own.  However, it is a healthy practice to be willing to release everything that burdens us or stands in the way of our best life.

When it comes to items we hold due to obligation we must ask ourselves, "Would I want someone I love to carry around something they no longer need or use simply because they fear to hurt my feelings?" If our answer is "No," we must trust our friends and loved ones to be as wise. Let it go! (I don't want anyone to feel obliged to hold on to some unneeded item just to protect my fragile ego. God willing, my ego is far more resilient than that.)

The preceding are just a few examples of how clutter clearing invites us to do spiritual work. Try it, and you may find that the regular examining and releasing of physical items can help you feel clearer and lighter in non-physical ways too.

To be continued.

For the other entries in this series, see below.

Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 1

Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 3

Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 1

Too Much Stuff

I have been clutter-clearing since I was a teenager, probably since I was born.

I have been a professional clutter-clearer since 2002.

My mentor clutter clearer told me that 90% of my job would be counseling.

She told me that my clients' biggest challenge would be shame---shame over having so much stuff, shame over the stuff being "out of control", and shame over the apparent inability to deal with it.

She was right.

I don't think the shame is deserved---not at all. In fact, I think it is part of the problem.

But in a culture increasingly ready to call someone a "hoarder", it takes extra courage to ask for help. I admire my clients for that. It takes courage to face a problem for which we are ashamed (unjustly). It takes a certain spiritual maturity to be ready to sort the old from the new, the broken from the whole, the no-longer-needed from the necessary.

Our north-american culture has an overabundance of STUFF.  We get gifts and give gifts all the time. Then we feel obliged to keep them. And everywhere we go, someone is trying to sell us something new, or cute, or something that will magically fix our life, and we fall for it.  Again and again.

When we open our mailbox, stuff pours out. Most often it is advertising---special offers and discounts on things we might need, or feel we might need, or read, or use...some day....

Our culture inundates us with stuff. And who has the time to sort and decide about it all? So we set it aside "for later," into another pile of stuff we intend to get to "when we have time."

The bigger the space we have, the more likely it is to fill up with stuff that we intend to get to. It happens faster than we can imagine.

Yet every client I have helped is NORMAL. Because we all have this struggle in our culture, and only a few of us have the time, AND energy, AND mindset to keep continuously processing all that stuff OUT again.

I have needed help with my stuff, so I do not judge. I am an expert due to a lifetime of necessity. Most recently I had to downsize from a three-bedroom home to about 100 sq. ft. (To move in with my college sweetheart who had a fully furnished 400 sq. ft. unit in Manhattan.) It was HARD. It hurt! But it was worth it. I survived. In fact, I'm thriving.

But still, clutter-clearing as a spiritual practice?

Oh yes.

Read on....

Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 2

Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 3

Blessed and Broken - sermon October 5 2014

“Blessed and Broken”

Alison Longstaff, October 5th, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Jeremiah 18:1-6; Luke 9:12-17; Heavenly Secrets 2343

           

       Take. Bless. Break. Share.

       Did you notice this progression in our reading from Luke today?

       Take. Bless. Break. Share.         

Whenever we find this progression in the New Testament, a communion is taking place. In today’s reading from Luke, Christ takes the meager offering of loaves and fishes, which is certainly never going to be enough to feed the large crowd; He blesses it and breaks it and gives it to the disciples to share.  And it becomes more than enough.  There is a message in that.

            Take. Bless. Break. Share.

            It struck me, as I researched this story, that this is what we can do in response to God’s gift of life to us: accept it, give thanks for it, break into it, and share it.  Also, this is what the gift of life does to us.  It comes on us and blesses us … and breaks us.           

          Life both blesses us and breaks us.  Loving others blesses us and breaks our hearts.  Living in community, as church and as family, brings untold blessings, and can break our spirits.  Nevertheless, there is something about that breaking that opens the way to a new richness in our souls and lives.

            Many of us here have parts of us that feel broken.  Though we do our best to look fine most of the time, we also hide the parts of ourselves that feel, well, “unsuitable for public consumption.” We all have memories of words and behaviors of which we are not proud. All of us at some point have said the wrong thing and hurt someone else’s feelings. We have all, at some point done the wrong thing and offended someone. For that matter, sometimes we do the right thing, and still someone misunderstands and gets offended.  No one can live in any real community for any length of time and not experience how communications can go wrong, good intentions can result in hurt, and resentments can erupt in sharp words.  Is there any congregation on this planet that has not had one scandal or another based on clashing personalities, conflicting control issues, poorly chosen words, or disappointed expectations?

Nadia Bolz-Weber, a tattooed pastor in Denver, Colorado, made famous for her colorful language and raw honesty, jokes that she thinks her church motto should be, “We will disappoint you.” She believes in reality over naive idealism.  She insists, “Any human community is flawed and will end up hurting people and not living up to their ideals.” So tells each new inquirer, “Listen. I need you to hear me say this: ‘At some point, this church will not meet your expectations. It will let you down. At some point I’ll say something stupid and hurt your feelings.’” She then invites each one to consider at the beginning if they are willing to continue in the community after that happens. “Because,” she says, “when we leave the minute our community disappoints us, we miss out on the way that grace can come in and fill in those cracks that are left behind from our brokenness and our mistakes, and it is too beautiful to miss.” (from the CBC radio show, "Tapestry" Season 20, Episode 3, "The Irascible Pastor") 

     Certainly we have all been offended or had our feelings hurt in this spiritual community or some other.  BUT we have also experienced being held close and cared for when we have been broken apart. That gift: that way a community can hold us together when we are at our most broken is one of the most meaningful aspects of being church together. Think about it. Recall some of the acts of kindness, great and small that have come your way simply because that is what we do.  Recall a time when you realized your small act of service made a difference, and how that felt.

            We are broken and we are blessed by each other. We cannot have one without the other, it seems.           

     In our Hebrew Testament reading we heard about a Potter throwing a pot on the potter’s wheel.  As we listen, the pot becomes deformed under the Potter’s hands.  Anyone who has attempted throwing pots knows how the clay seems to have a mind of its own. Either the clay is too wet or it is too dry, or there is an impurity in it that ends up causing a crack.  One minute the pot is shaping up nicely, and the next minute the clay thins too quickly, or it splits, or flops over from excess moisture. . . .  And the envisioned vessel becomes a broken blob.

            In my life I have often felt not so much like the useful vessel I intend to be but more like a broken blob.  Have you ever wondered if you were just too broken or flawed to ever become the person you dream you could be?

            But notice this: the pot is in the Potter’s hands while the deformity happens. It isn't that the Potter was careless, yet the pot is spoiled.  It isn't the Potter’s fault, and it isn't the clay’s fault either, even though the flaw is inherent in the clay.  This text is not telling us: “Be careful because you too might mess up like the pot.” No. This story is in God’s Word exactly this way because this is how life goes. We will be broken. We can’t help it. We come flawed. That’s not the point. The point is that we are held, known, and loved right through the brokenness and back to wholeness. The text is reassuring us that we are always in the Potter’s hands. He’s never faltered for a minute. We are already being made new.
      We never leave God’s hands. The brokenness is always a gateway to a new and more beautiful plan.

      A famous Leonard Cohen song says, “There is a crack, a crack in everything; but that’s how the light gets in.”  I’ve heard this quote so often, it has become cliché. Nevertheless it remains true. Sometimes the only way the light gets in is through our cracks.

     The cracks open a way for us to learn things we could learn no other way. Babies learn how to walk by falling down. Skiers and skaters learn balance through repeated spills. We learn how to love each other well, by loving clumsily and hurting each other sometimes first. And new pastors learn how to write good sermons only after inflicting some real clunkers on some long-suffering congregations. It is just what the process looks like.

            Besides, we’re the ones that want perfection straight out of the gate, not God.

            God designed a system in which being broken is part of the process.

         Honestly, in this very little denomination, inspired by the writings of a brilliant man, whom some considered a bit of a crack-pot, we of all people should recognize that sometimes the light gets in best through the cracks. Swedenborg saw visions; he talked to dead people; he said there are people living on the moon. But despite his oddness and his unorthodox teachings—many of which still leave us scratching our heads—his writings have also brought healing, enlightenment, and new hope to tens of thousands.  He has opened the Bible in a whole new way.  He has taught us about heaven and hell, the internal meaning to the Bible, about Love and Wisdom, and about salvation for peoples of all faith and all walks of life.

      So let’s hear it for crack-pots! Let’s hear it for anyone who is brave enough to speak their truth into a world that isn't ready to hear it. Let’s hear it for all the ways and means that God devises to help the light break through into our lives.

     After all, Jesus was considered a crack-pot. He certainly was broken for His efforts to speak the truth into an unready world. And He certainly blessed us by His willingness to be broken.  Perhaps that is part of what he was trying to tell us—that we need not fear brokenness. That brokenness is always the path to being made new.

        I think it is in our nature to fear our brokenness. We want to hide it, cover it over, and paint a smiley face on it. We feel sure that it means we are weak, that we are not good enough, that we should be ashamed, that we have failed.  But it is not so. It simply means we are human. It means we are alive.

            Take.  Bless.  Break.  Share.

         Isn't it so often true that our vulnerabilities end up being our strengths?

         Accept your life! Give thanks for it, for it is perfect, no matter how inadequate it may seem. Break into it, live it, eat it up, let it change you. And share the gifts you are given, no matter how meager they look in your hands. In God’s hands they become an overflowing abundance.

     Yes, this life can sometimes break us. But embrace it—all of it—for it is only through the breaking and the eating that we find and share our deepest blessings.

       Amen.

Rewritten from a sermon preached January 28^th, 2007, Kitchener, Ontario

Readings

Jeremiah 18:1-6 (NKJV)

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:  “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.”  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:  “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!

Luke 9:12-17 (NKJV)

When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”

But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”

And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men.

Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” And they did so, and made them all sit down.

Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

Heavenly Secrets 2343. “And they ate” means they accepted it and made it part of their life.  “Eating,” means accepting and ingesting, and so to make something a part of one’s life. “This is My Body;” and “this is My Blood” means the Lord's Divine Human and the Lord’s Holy Spirit, from which and by means of which come all life and salvation. That is why communion is so sacred. Whether you say “His Divine Human,” or “His Body”, or “His Flesh,” or “the Bread,” or “the Divine Love,” it is the same; for the Lord's Divine Human is pure Love.  It is being from Divine Love that makes something sacred.              

Broken Open by Love

I recently returned from a gathering of my peers (fellow liberal Swedenborgian ministers) in beautiful Laport, Indiana.  I was asked to give the talk to the local congregation Wednesday night.  We had been fed and housed by the several generous, quiet, and amazingly kind ladies of this congregation as we listened, discerned, and upheld each other in love. This was the message, from our hearts to the whole congregation. 

Broken Open

Scripture: John 12 20-26

Rev. Alison Longstaff

The Laport New Church, Indiana

http://www.laportenewchurch.org/

Joint worship at the close of “Peer Supervision,” October 24, 2012

John 12:24 “Timeless truth I speak to you: unless a grain of wheat falls and dies in the ground, it remains alone.  But if it dies, it yields a great abundance.”

What do we do in peer supervision?

Do we discuss deep points of doctrine? 

Do we explore the deep underlying existential and theological implications of ministry in modern western global consciousness today?

Nope.

We come for fellowship.

We come to listen and to heal. We come to share in the one community that really gets us.

So what happens in these meetings?  A great deal of heart truth.  What happens in these meetings?  Listening, sharing, empathy, comfort, and support; insight, respect, often tears, sometimes heart-wrenching sobs, and always uproarious laughter.

And this was a point of insight for us --- that without the willingness to go into our depths of sadness and struggle, we would not also be opened to the moments of tremendous light.  Unless we allowed ourselves to be broken open by the love and safety here, we would tend to remain tightly bound in our need to be strong.  Pastors need pastors too. And so here we find that when we let ourselves be supported by each other --- when we let ourselves feel our deepest vulnerability, we rediscover our greatest strength, which is God’s relentless, persistent, unconditional love, experienced through each other.

Like the seed in the scripture falling to the earth, we must surrender.  We would prefer to hold on to “life.”  To feel strong and competent and capable.  It is much harder to look openly at our fears and insecurities.  It is much easier to be strong.  Who likes feeling vulnerable?  Yet through our descent into the dark earth of vulnerability, God cracks us open, and THEN the sacred and creative and the beautiful burst into life. 

It is a universal truth of the human condition: that deep in the heart of each soul is the terror of not being good enough.  Deep in each psyche lies the fear of being innately unlovable.  This is commonly called shame, and every mistake we have ever made piggybacks on this shame and seeks to convince you and you and me that we are somehow truly unlovable, and that some day, someone will figure this out and the game will be up.  We will be rejected, “as we deserve.”

But guess what?  There are no throw-away people. 

None. 

Every single one of us is the absolutely perfect, bright, and innocent soul that we were at the moment of our birth.  Nothing has changed, except that we have come to believe that we might somehow have lost our right to have love and human tenderness and connection, because our culture tells us so.

So let’s just admit it right now.  We all have warts.  We are all afraid of being just too broken to love.  And we are all completely beautiful and full of light!  And only through our vulnerability and heart-honesty, do we experience God’s presence among us, in compassion, gentleness, healing tears, and then deep belly-aching laughter. 

If we isolate and try to maintain the illusion of strength, we remain alone.  But when we allow ourselves to die, and to let our pride go, we are open to finding true intimacy and the abundant life of true heart-relationship --- which is the kingdom of heaven.

We came to these meetings holding it together.  

We leave whole and together. 

We came needing healing.  

We leave with such gratitude for this congregation’s quiet, amazing support and hospitality.  

Thank you for your light and love.  

http://www.memorise.org/brain-articles/laughter-affects-brain-00734.html