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INTERNET GRANDFATHERŽ
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Clutter I recently moved my office and had to deal with almost forty years of accumulated files, books, souvenirs, and, even, old suits and coats. It made me think about clutter. Clutter means disorder, litter and confusion and I have to admit my office was cluttered. Clutter is not new to me; both my office and my home have been more or less cluttered for a long time. But, in the way things happen as we age, my thoughts about clutter have not been friendly and comfortable. I don't look at clutter as an old friend. As I unpack, my thoughts turn to reducing or eliminating the clutter. My thoughts about clutter were not only about physical clutter, either. Clutter doesn't just arise in our physical surroundings, it can arise in our minds. Our minds can become disorderly, littered and confused. We can lose focus, lose the ability to think logically and rationally, become confused. It's the same as physical clutter. We let things pile up in our minds, irrational thoughts, distractions, incorrect priorities and the like. Physical clutter sometimes requires a lot of time and effort to clean up. We must move or discard objects that we no longer need, no matter how important it seemed at the time we acquired them. We have to segregate the things we need from the things we might want to keep around us. It's hard work. By contrast, eliminating mental clutter is easy. All we have to do to clean up our mental clutter is to want to do it. All we have to do is concentrate on one thing at a time. All we have to do is focus. Deal with priorities, deal with necessary tasks as they arise, and don't let unneeded thoughts that interfere with your priorities clutter your mind. The broom for your physical surroundings might not be readily available but the broom for your mind is already there. Use it. 5-1-06 2006 Archives 2005 Archives 2004 Archives 2003 Archives 2002 Archives 2001 Archives |