Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis
This is the time of year for winter clothes to go away and summer clothes to come out. I call it the limbo season where you can’t figure out what to wear! It’s cool in the morning and evening and warm in the midday. There is the added challenge of getting rid of the things you’ve not worn for several seasons. The style or size has relegated those items to the has-been area of the closet. I suppose we think that life will change, and we’ll want that ten-year-old suit that’s been out of style for five years! We live in the delusion that the ten pounds will melt away, or the fashions will return eventually.
The closet metamorphosis is a good analogy for life in general. As humans, we tend to think that things will return to a former state. We might live in the glory of past days and have a secret longing for another time. The older we get, the more that may be the case. The sad mistake is that when we refuse to clean out the old stuff, we do not allow for the new. We literally get bogged down in life, clinging to things that are gone. Those that move through the aging process anticipating new things do so more successfully. Not only are those folks the realists, but they are the enthusiasts. Life is always about change and growth, no matter our age. We can make room to shop for new clothes, but more importantly, we can shop for new experiences all of our lives! Francine Jay, the author of The Joy of Less, says, “Your home is a living space, not storage space.” I would add that the older we are, the more we need to open up our living space!
"Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions." Barbara Hemphill