By: Joseph J. Mazzella
“How did this happen AGAIN?” I said. I had been looking for a box of envelopes on the top shelf of my bedroom closet. Just as I opened the door, however, my cell phone rang. I reached into my pocket to pull it out but it slipped from my hand and bounced on the floor into my dark, tiny closet. I bent down to pick it up but couldn’t find it in the mess of junk that was there.
I didn’t know how this had happened. Only a few years back I had done an in depth house cleaning, throwing away anything I didn’t use, need, or love. It had felt so good having all of that stuff that was taking up space out of my closets and out of my life. Now it seemed like it had returned overnight. I reached down and started to take out the things as I looked for my phone. On my closet floor there were four boxes of books, an old set of children’s encyclopedias, two pillows, an extra filter for my electric heater, an old suitcase, the window air conditioner unit that I had put up for the winter, two broken television sets, a big box of old board games, an ancient, outdated computer, and a couple of pieces of a broken dog crate. I finally found my phone which had taken a weird bounce into a corner of the closet. And I vowed once spring arrived to have another big cleaning and ditch the junk once again.
There is an old saying that goes, “The only things we can take with us are those which fit into a coffin.” This is true of the physical stuff in this world, but there is some spiritual stuff we can take with us when we go. We can take the love we shared, the good we did, the holy moments we created, the relationship with God we built, and the growth we gained. Take good care of your spiritual stuff then and let go of the physical stuff as much as you can. It will make your heart, home, and life a lot lighter.
