Let It Go

This week, one word kept popping up in different conversations. Room. One tiny word. So many meanings. Big and small. Room = four walls . . . Room = space . . . It can be used in many ways; physical, emotional, spiritual and otherwise. It came up initially because one of my kids was reminding me that he has no “room” in his closet for the clothes he has. Now, I am going to assume I am not the only mom in America who has this problem: we will go school shopping . . . sometimes, I am very diligent about getting the old clothes out and replacing them with the new. In this case, I just haven’t thinned things out in their closets recently. Other times, especially in our children’s younger years, we have had to buy two additional larger sizes of shirts, pants, and shoes when school started in the fall. For the most part, though, moms are good at making room when needed. 

Then I heard the word again. This time it was in reference to the “room” in the back of my SUV without the regular sporting event paraphernalia that is usually a permanent fixture in it this time of year. Now, as I just said, moms are pretty good in general at making room for needed items for the family in suitcases, bags, closets, drawers and even vehicles. But, let me tell you . . . the sports mom is a spatial relation NINJA. There have been times when I have almost cried with pride (or exhaustion, not sure which) upon seeing my own usage of space and how I loaded all the coolers, lunch bags, lawn chairs, bat bags, other bags, purses, coats, blankets, canopy, wagon, ice scraper, and all the other items I was not certain would fit in the back end of my SUV and still managed to safely shut the hatch. (It’s Colorado and yes, you can use all of those items at different times on the same day.) Sometimes the result was worthy of a photo titled “Almighty Packing Hacks” that deserved to be shared across all social media platforms.

The next time the word came up was when I was thinking back on cleaning out my closet when my friend, Cara, brought me all the hand me “ups” she had gotten too small for. I have always kept back larger clothes when cleaning out my closet after losing any amount of weight. I kept them because I always gained the weight back and knew I would need them to wear when I gained again. But I really had a “room” problem because I had acquired a LOT of clothes in addition to what I already had in my closet. I didn’t have enough room to store the sizes from Cara I hadn’t made it in to yet, let alone keep the sizes I had already “under grown”. So I cleaned. And the only thing still in my closet that is too large for my current frame is this brown, knit, older-than-my-15-year-old, comfy-as-heck sweater. (Sorry, Tammy! Can’t part with it. Haha!) I don’t wear it anywhere anymore but I love to lounge in the thing. Wearing it is like a warm hug from a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. Truly! So I held on to it. But the rest of the old, larger-than-me-sized clothes are gone. 

Yet, one more time I came across the word. I was cleaning and had stacked all my hymnals together. One of them opened up a little, and out fell a folded piece of sheet music. No kidding, it was the song, “Have You Any Room For Jesus?”. And of course, my mind spins most things in my life to the spiritual side anyway. So that is where I camped for a while. I started thinking that just as I have had to make room in my closet for new clothes after losing weight, I need to make room in my life for what is truly important and good.

Just like cleaning out our closet, we make room by getting rid of the things in our lives that don’t seem to fit us anymore. We get rid of things that aren’t serving a purpose to make room for the new and the good. In life, we have a tendency to hold onto things and we let it feed whatever part of us is the strongest at that time. And if that’s the negative side, then that is all we see and that is all we feed. Other times, the positive side of us is more dominant and we feed that. And then, and only then, can we reach for the “better” instead. It’s important then to make sure we do all we can to keep the most positive attitude in all things. Focus on the good.

I have always been pretty good at compartmentalizing. Not as good as my husband who has a “nothing box” that he enters after a hard day not to be disturbed for a while. But still, I am pretty good at it. The problem I have is that once I put something into a different place in my mind, I don’t always go back and pay it the attention it needs. And because of that, things have a tendency to pile up and get cluttered like a junk drawer in the kitchen. By the time I do go back there, it is so messy and unorganized I have a hard time knowing where to start. This makes it difficult to know what I need to get rid of. And oftentimes, things just stay there, unattended because of that. I know I am not alone in this!

Other times I do go into those places and start doing the deep dive to make room. I sometimes find myself hanging on tightly to all of it. ALL of it. Even things I shouldn’t be. I believe that our hands have to be open to both give and receive blessings and love. If we are hanging on, white-knuckled, to things we shouldn’t be clinging to there is no way to give or receive ANYthing. Fear keeps us hanging on. The unknown keeps us hanging on. Comfort and tradition keeps us hanging on. This last 6 weeks, we have all been forced to let go of a LOT in our lives. It has been such a strange time but I have realized and learned a lot over the last month and a half. I am ready to get back to normal soon, but I also hope life looks different for us. For me. A new normal, maybe. Slower somehow. More intentional even. I have realized that there is a difference between “having” room and “making” room. I know we all say, “I just don’t have the time (room) for . . . ” but, if I’m honest, I think it should sound more like, “I just don’t want to make the time (room) for . . . ” Making room requires us to let go of the things that aren’t suited to us, or isn’t what is best for us, or in some cases, just isn’t even right and good for us at that time.  

Whether it is your closet, your car, your heart, your job or your life, know when it’s time to let go and make room. It can be as easy as just loosening our grip on whatever we are holding on to and allowing it to slip through our fingers. Sometimes, it is a little more difficult than that. We may end up having to shovel the things we need to get rid of into a cart to be hauled off. Two things are for certain. One, we can’t embrace the things meant for us if we continue to hang on to things no longer serving us. And, two, there are people in our lives who are willing to help us push, pull or drag that cart if we just accept their help. Learn to recognize when hanging on is harmful to you. And learn to see when something better is about to replace it. And then, in the name of all things good and right, just let go. 

#loveyourjourney #youreworthit #bettermewithNewYouCBD #Endo30 #itsuptoyou