Photo by Luca Laurence on Unsplash
Many years ago I wrote a column for our Sunday School Class’s newsletter. I have been doing some going through things, again trying to simplify my life, when I found this column. So since this is March and March makes me think of spring cleaning, I decided to resurrect it.
Balki Bartokomous said, “What a wonderful day we’ve had. You have learned something, and I have learned something. Too bad we didn’t learn it sooner. We could have gone to the movies instead.” 😊
Learning is a wonderful thing. The problem is that every day we are exposed to so much information that we don’t have time to really process very much of it! Some days I feel like if I have to absorb one more piece of information or a bit of data, or sound bite, I will run screaming out into the street pulling my hair out. Well, I mean I would do that louder and more viciously than usual. 😊 No, seriously I don’t do that much running and screaming, but I do think about having to think about…. STUFF!
STUFF is so worrisome! Whether STUFF means things (and we know that “things take time” is not just a bromide to make you learn patience; things literally take up your time.”), or whether it means words, figures, data, mental wear and tear, or emotional baggage, STUFF gets a lot more attention than it deserves to get. This is something I learned many years ago. Guess who I learned it from most – our Sierra Leonian daughter, Maria, when we first brought her back from Africa.
As a tween/teen, Maria didn’t want to go shopping. Maria didn’t want to visit friends. Maria didn’t want to go and do and get back and do some more. Maria got tired. And I think I can really identify with her. (Now that I am 71! – A slow learner?) She came from a place where she didn’t have much more to do than to sit around the camp and try to stay alive. I can only imagine how all the hustle and bustle of regular (American) life must have seemed to her. Like an avalanche threatening to bury her. She didn’t need all that in her life. She just wanted to stay at home and BE.
You know what? It doesn’t take a lot of stuff to BE. And what I learned from Maria is that the more STUFF you must be answerable for, the more STUFF you must answer to. Oh, I know, I’ve said for years that you don’t own your STUFF; it owns you. But I was always thinking of things – you know, tangible STUFF – when I said that. Maria taught me that anything that interrupted your emotional equilibrium, anything that kept you running in circles chasing your tail, anything that stressed you to the point of exasperation is probably just STUFF. And STUFF doesn’t want you to BE.
Maybe we are getting on top of that lesson with the time of COVID. Maybe we have learned a little more how to BE. At home. With family. Without interruptions. Maybe there is a blessing in a plague that will allow us to consider our relationship with our loved ones more than our STUFF.
Now back to the basement to reorder some priorities and deal with some STUFF that with any luck won’t be around to plague me any more.
Happy March!!!