A Less Traveled Path to Enlightenment

I recently found myself facing a task that is hard to perform and way too easy to procrastinate. I was gasping for air just to finish.

Professional organizers and decluttering coaches are becoming more mainstream. There is a whole industry based on a discovery that it takes more than just willpower to have a clear, well-organized, harmonious place to live. There is plenty of help you can get from books, professionals, and the Internet.

However, it is even more difficult if you live and work in the same place.

After much discussion with my wife, we have decided to discard, donate, and recycle as much as possible in the next few weeks. Our place was in a very bad shape when we moved here one year ago.

Since then, it’s gotten a lot better, after much cleaning, repairing, and painting.
(It was a blessing we got the apartment after several months of having been homeless).

Just after a few days of cleaning, organizing, and -- more importantly -- throwing away what we don’t use or need any longer, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Suddenly I felt joy.

The feeling as if I was standing at the fork in the road, has disappeared.
It wasn’t there any more – just a beautiful horizon.

Our small apartment (we live in NYC) exhaled a nice a clear atmosphere, and a sense of accomplishment. I thought, “This must be how some feel when they reach enlightenment!”

If we don’t do our best to clean and get rid of wherever we don’t need or use, soon our living space will be taken over and we’ll end up with no space at all. Hoarding can be a serious issue.

The Zen masters refer to emptiness, as what gives great value to the cup.
It is the emptiness that makes its essence, its usefulness.

All kinds of memories came back to me as I was decluttering.

My friend Bob, who was a professional carpenter, was always saying, “The cleaner you get the closer you are to god.”

I did a lot of demolition work for him years ago when I was going to art school.

A staff sergeant from the marines used to yell at our platoon at the top of his lungs, “Marines! You better travel light! You never know when you’ll have to swim or run to fight another day.”

Dad used to say to me, “Whatever you use, put it back where it belongs.”

Happy New Year to all