The new year seems like a good time not only for making resolutions, but also for clearing and cleaning things out. It’s about more than charity. It’s about simplifying life. Life is complicated enough, busy enough, and sometimes crowded enough. When we add more work to all that we try to do in our already full routines, it can be overwhelming. In a discussion I was a part of the other day, we were talking about this very thing, and how unnecessary it is to accumulate multiples of the same item, when one would do just as well. And it’s amazing how quickly things add up—so much so that sometimes it happens before we realize it. Depleting ourselves of what we really don’t need in the first place makes it easier for us to hear God because our focus isn’t all over the place, but is more centered.
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Granted, with day-to-day life being what it is for most of us, this elimination tends to be a process. We can take one drawer, one shelf, one closet, or one room—if applicable—at a time; one a day, one a week, one a month, even. We can give away, recycle, or put to a different use what we weren’t using before. This also makes us good stewards of what God has entrusted to us and has loaned to us. This isn’t just about being Catholic. In fact, I know someone who is of a completely different background from me, and this person could be my role model when it comes to leading a simple life. Even in that one conversation we had about this very topic, I was reminded and made more conscious of so much. 
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Sister Mary CarlaSister Mary Carla Flood, OSB is a Minnesota state-licensed Master level social worker. She holds a BA in psychology and MSW both from Arizona State University. She moved to Duluth in 2007 from Phoenix while discerning with the Duluth Benedictines. She is originally from upstate New York, and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, moving to Phoenix with her family in 1984 shortly before starting high school. She has diversified ministry experience. See all of Sister Mary Carla’s posts. |