It might sound nothing out of the ordinary but if you knew how much stuff I have from my desk to my closet (besides clothes that is), you'll probably wonder how I'll manage to squeeze everything in one suitcase.
I've decided to throw and donate 90% of my stuff. "Stuff" that is ranging from clothes, books to memorabilia. I actually threw all my memorabilia without hesitation. I'm sure if my friends will know about it, there will be a chorus of "WHY?!" thrown upon me.
My answer will only be, "I don't want to carry them anymore with me."
Back then, when I clean my things, I always hesitate throwing old possessions because sentimentality always gets me. Today, as I part with my old stuff, I see sentimentality as a mere word in the dictionary.
Anyway, as I was in the middle of cleaning and segregating stuff in my closet, I found a paper with an essay printed in it. An essay written by Paulo Coelho. I remember seeing the said essay in his blog about 2 years ago. I was nursing an heartache that time. The essay was well written but I was so heartbroken that time I had a hard time listening to what it was trying to tell me.
Today, when I re-read the essay I finally heard what it was sincerely saying.
And what a coincidence. I'm doing exactly the 4th paragraph.
Closing Cycles
Paulo Coelho (Warrior of Light)
One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.
Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden? You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that. But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.
None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot for ever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back. Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.
That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place. Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.
Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the “ideal moment.” Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.
Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life.
Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.
Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.
Finally, I've ligthen my load. :)
I've done that, throw souvenirs--particularly those from a part of my life that I'd rather not bring along anymore--away. Feels really great. You feel the actual "letting go" part of it.
ReplyDeleteThen not long after that, I found the same souvenirs (wrapped in the plastic bag I chucked them in) back in my cabinet.
Waaah--? My MOM found them in the trash and put them back! Sayang daw. -_-'
I had to throw them away again. LOL