As I was reading, I was thinking "it's probably more about seeing it all as creative process ... the accumulating of books and supplies, the using of them, the realizing it's too much, the letting go, the starting again" and that's what you got to as I read ... the flow, the filling up and then releasing. We need both, energetically, in our lives. I do think there's value in leaving empty space (I forget who but someone famous-ish talks about always leaving an empty shelf for possibility.) But I also think there are times when what we need is the abundance of possibility as well.
YES YES YES!!! I love this. And I think you are onto something. It's likely much more about collecting and releasing. I've been working at this for the last 8 years, and I still collect a bit too much from time to time, but I'm also better about letting go. I'm enjoying my space and the fact I leave room now for what's to come! 💜
Karen, wonderfully written post! So many ideas to think about. I imagine our breath, filling and emptying, every moment, on its own. It’s not one or the other but the balance of both.
There are times along our journey in life when it made sense to fill up, buy things for the house, for the kids, etc. But now my husband and I are both retired and have thought a lot about emptying, downsizing, selling everything and heading out on our gravel bikes for an extended period of time. Outrageously daring in so many ways. Emptying everything... not sure I can do it. So we’ve given ourselves time to research renting or airBnbing the house and not selling it. Getting rid of a lot but storing treasures. We would like to have a landing pad to come home to. Yet it’s refreshing to just imagine having only what we can carry on our bikes. It’s so much more simple and freeing. We will make some decisions soon.
Thank you for sharing your joys and struggles in life through your posts and photos. You make the world a better place. 🩵☀️🌻
Yes, I was thinking about breath yesterday and couldn't figure out how to fit that in! It is really challenging letting things go. I hadn't thought of it, but I love "outrageously daring".
Thank you for your insights! I also have a collection of books and arts and crafts supplies, which I am trying to cull. I like your phrase "practice emptying" as a mantra as I choose some yarn or fabric to gift someone as a fabulous "find" in our local thrift store.
Mmmm, I love that. I want to just start using them to do "useless" things like coloring like a kid. Or actually making all that yarn into dishrags - one row at a time.
Ah, I can picture that! I have a huge box of yarn I kept from my mom's after she died, intending to make these dishrags. My last set from her are failing fast, I need to get on it!
It was a real challenge when I downsized to move to Texas….thankfully the move to the apartment after the house in Texas wasn’t as difficult… I was able to keep the beloved furniture pieces from my Grandmother/parents… even if it’s a little crowded brings me comfort…interesting writing about space…. Thought provoking👍❤️😍
I love the Greek word which was applied to Jesus -- kenosis. Self-emptying. I think that is what nature teaches us, and why Jesus used references so much to nature in his teaching. How it's in the letting go in life (and ultimately death) that we make room for something new, surprising, and growth-oriented. Releasing the better in order to make room for the best. Indeed, less IS more!
Mmmm - Lauren, I love this. Last night after I wrote this I wrote in my own journal - the space in my home reflects not letting go inside me of what I know to be "me". Not giving that space to change for fear for what might take its place.
I think late-stage (or what I hope is late-stage) capitalism inundates us with material possessions, until creating space--even for ourselves--becomes a challenge. I very much enjoyed reading your ongoing struggles with & thoughts about space.
Thanks for your thoughts. I enjoyed reading this weekend's musings--well written--and heartily agree with your conclusion...that it's the letting go we need to learn--or are forced to learn--as we travel through this life. I've move four time since my marriage ended 11 years ago, each time downsizing or re-evaluating my NEEDS.
There was the move from the house after finishing the remodel to my pottery studio and living in it while everything that wasn't essential was stored in the adjacent garage. Then there was a move from Montana to an Iowa farmhouse with what fit in the largest UHaul....most boxed belongings traveled with me since I'd already downsized from the house to the studio but any other items (excluding my pottery equipment and supplies) were sold....and eventually the studio was sold so what remained was gifted to the person who'd been renting the space, to the new owner, or to people who'd supported my pottery hobby. By that time, it was becoming amazingly easy to let STUFF go.
Next was the move from the farmhouse to a 600 square foot condo in NH that included the sale of my pottery studio equipment and supplies, most of my workshop tools, gardening tools, large furniture, craft supplies, etc. I was now down to a small UHaul. But condo living wasn't for me so my last move was into a small single family colonial in Michigan where I'm living closer to my daughter and her family.
I've accumulated a few things here. There's a comfort in gathering 'things', in 'nesting', but though I read lots, I no longer purchase books and instead rely on our library that has a great digital resource. I want to keep some space on those bookcases open!!
After being around others who FILL their space I've come to enjoy creating an environment that is comfortable yet feels open, like being at the ocean. For me, it's not just STUFF that needs to be let go though. It's expectations, it's the ability to do things that were once physically easy but are now challenging, it's the loss of some cognitive flexibility and ability to multitask.
It's the DOING I still struggle with....I often end the day asking myself if I've DONE enough to be satisfied....like it really makes a difference. It's crazy. I want to let this go like I've let possessions go and be okay with the space within. I read somewhere that what you do in one part of your life is what you do in all parts--that there's a theme. The idea being to choose a small behavior that we can adjust and by doing that, affect big changes.
So I can identify with your analogy--that which happens outside reflects what happens within and it's a constant challenge to balance the two, whether it's daily or monthly or yearly.
Yes yes yes yes and yes. Ah, all you have articulated here - I could have written for days on this subject (and probably will write more, it seems to be a theme). I so understand all those moves!
This is beautifully written! Speaking pragmatically, the livable areas of our house are set up pretty much the way we want them, but only because we have half a dozen storage areas that are jammed mostly with boxes of stuff we rarely need. So we have created an airy (empty) feel by junking up the spaces we can't see. 😀
Ha! Well, this townhouse only has two small bedroom closets so there isn't much space to cram with stuff! The basement could become that but I've been (pretty) vigilant about not letting the storage space grow.
“Perhaps space - not the space “out there”, but rather the space in close - really is the final frontier because it is always shifting and changing, filling and emptying, appearing and disappearing.” yeeeeessssss 🕊️
Yes! Great stitch meditation and even better with Mom's yarn!
Absolutely love this post!
Thank you Patricia!
As I was reading, I was thinking "it's probably more about seeing it all as creative process ... the accumulating of books and supplies, the using of them, the realizing it's too much, the letting go, the starting again" and that's what you got to as I read ... the flow, the filling up and then releasing. We need both, energetically, in our lives. I do think there's value in leaving empty space (I forget who but someone famous-ish talks about always leaving an empty shelf for possibility.) But I also think there are times when what we need is the abundance of possibility as well.
Oh now I love that! I need to take that one in and let it settle, seeing it as a creative process.
YES YES YES!!! I love this. And I think you are onto something. It's likely much more about collecting and releasing. I've been working at this for the last 8 years, and I still collect a bit too much from time to time, but I'm also better about letting go. I'm enjoying my space and the fact I leave room now for what's to come! 💜
I think it's with time and energy I have the most trouble leaving empty space too. There's so much to contemplate with this topic!
Yes, there is!!!
Karen, wonderfully written post! So many ideas to think about. I imagine our breath, filling and emptying, every moment, on its own. It’s not one or the other but the balance of both.
There are times along our journey in life when it made sense to fill up, buy things for the house, for the kids, etc. But now my husband and I are both retired and have thought a lot about emptying, downsizing, selling everything and heading out on our gravel bikes for an extended period of time. Outrageously daring in so many ways. Emptying everything... not sure I can do it. So we’ve given ourselves time to research renting or airBnbing the house and not selling it. Getting rid of a lot but storing treasures. We would like to have a landing pad to come home to. Yet it’s refreshing to just imagine having only what we can carry on our bikes. It’s so much more simple and freeing. We will make some decisions soon.
Thank you for sharing your joys and struggles in life through your posts and photos. You make the world a better place. 🩵☀️🌻
Yes, I was thinking about breath yesterday and couldn't figure out how to fit that in! It is really challenging letting things go. I hadn't thought of it, but I love "outrageously daring".
Thank you for your insights! I also have a collection of books and arts and crafts supplies, which I am trying to cull. I like your phrase "practice emptying" as a mantra as I choose some yarn or fabric to gift someone as a fabulous "find" in our local thrift store.
Mmmm, I love that. I want to just start using them to do "useless" things like coloring like a kid. Or actually making all that yarn into dishrags - one row at a time.
Multicolored sunflower afghan squares are my current version of dishrags, one circle at a time round and round.
Ah, I can picture that! I have a huge box of yarn I kept from my mom's after she died, intending to make these dishrags. My last set from her are failing fast, I need to get on it!
It was a real challenge when I downsized to move to Texas….thankfully the move to the apartment after the house in Texas wasn’t as difficult… I was able to keep the beloved furniture pieces from my Grandmother/parents… even if it’s a little crowded brings me comfort…interesting writing about space…. Thought provoking👍❤️😍
I remember how challenging it was for you. <3 I do have small things from all the people who are and have been important to me.
I love the Greek word which was applied to Jesus -- kenosis. Self-emptying. I think that is what nature teaches us, and why Jesus used references so much to nature in his teaching. How it's in the letting go in life (and ultimately death) that we make room for something new, surprising, and growth-oriented. Releasing the better in order to make room for the best. Indeed, less IS more!
Mmmm - Lauren, I love this. Last night after I wrote this I wrote in my own journal - the space in my home reflects not letting go inside me of what I know to be "me". Not giving that space to change for fear for what might take its place.
I think late-stage (or what I hope is late-stage) capitalism inundates us with material possessions, until creating space--even for ourselves--becomes a challenge. I very much enjoyed reading your ongoing struggles with & thoughts about space.
Thank you Janisse. I swear I don't buy much - but the stack of poetry books says otherwise!
Thanks for your thoughts. I enjoyed reading this weekend's musings--well written--and heartily agree with your conclusion...that it's the letting go we need to learn--or are forced to learn--as we travel through this life. I've move four time since my marriage ended 11 years ago, each time downsizing or re-evaluating my NEEDS.
There was the move from the house after finishing the remodel to my pottery studio and living in it while everything that wasn't essential was stored in the adjacent garage. Then there was a move from Montana to an Iowa farmhouse with what fit in the largest UHaul....most boxed belongings traveled with me since I'd already downsized from the house to the studio but any other items (excluding my pottery equipment and supplies) were sold....and eventually the studio was sold so what remained was gifted to the person who'd been renting the space, to the new owner, or to people who'd supported my pottery hobby. By that time, it was becoming amazingly easy to let STUFF go.
Next was the move from the farmhouse to a 600 square foot condo in NH that included the sale of my pottery studio equipment and supplies, most of my workshop tools, gardening tools, large furniture, craft supplies, etc. I was now down to a small UHaul. But condo living wasn't for me so my last move was into a small single family colonial in Michigan where I'm living closer to my daughter and her family.
I've accumulated a few things here. There's a comfort in gathering 'things', in 'nesting', but though I read lots, I no longer purchase books and instead rely on our library that has a great digital resource. I want to keep some space on those bookcases open!!
After being around others who FILL their space I've come to enjoy creating an environment that is comfortable yet feels open, like being at the ocean. For me, it's not just STUFF that needs to be let go though. It's expectations, it's the ability to do things that were once physically easy but are now challenging, it's the loss of some cognitive flexibility and ability to multitask.
It's the DOING I still struggle with....I often end the day asking myself if I've DONE enough to be satisfied....like it really makes a difference. It's crazy. I want to let this go like I've let possessions go and be okay with the space within. I read somewhere that what you do in one part of your life is what you do in all parts--that there's a theme. The idea being to choose a small behavior that we can adjust and by doing that, affect big changes.
So I can identify with your analogy--that which happens outside reflects what happens within and it's a constant challenge to balance the two, whether it's daily or monthly or yearly.
Yes yes yes yes and yes. Ah, all you have articulated here - I could have written for days on this subject (and probably will write more, it seems to be a theme). I so understand all those moves!
This is beautifully written! Speaking pragmatically, the livable areas of our house are set up pretty much the way we want them, but only because we have half a dozen storage areas that are jammed mostly with boxes of stuff we rarely need. So we have created an airy (empty) feel by junking up the spaces we can't see. 😀
Ha! Well, this townhouse only has two small bedroom closets so there isn't much space to cram with stuff! The basement could become that but I've been (pretty) vigilant about not letting the storage space grow.
Shhhh! Why'd you reveal our secret?! 😁
LOL :D
“Perhaps space - not the space “out there”, but rather the space in close - really is the final frontier because it is always shifting and changing, filling and emptying, appearing and disappearing.” yeeeeessssss 🕊️
Thank you Kara