It started with an empty box and a 5-minute activity: find 10 ‘treasures’ that we may (or may not) be ready to let go of during our Find Your Simple group clearing session. As I walked through the rooms of my mostly clutter-free home, all I could see were rocks.
Seriously.
Painted rocks. Crystals. Cairns. Fossils & precious stone collections. Bowls of rocks awaiting my paint pens.
By the time I returned to our zoom room, I was laughing…a bit sheepishly. Am I the only one who collects ‘special’ rocks, bringing back one or two (or five) to commemorate a significant nature moment?
OK, so my #blessingrocks have brought many a smile to the people who receive them, and this creative outlet has been a joyful pastime. The fossils were given to us by a friend and are very interestingly sorted into categories in their ornate box inside a curio cabinet. The cairns are a reminder of sorts, bringing me back to several significant trips, pointing me toward those times of simple being.
But still.
How many rocks does one woman need?
I decided my first clearing project would be to really look at the rocks in my life, and if you know me by now, you’ll realize this quickly became about more than the physical rocks.
Yes, I did remove many of the rocks from my house, after gathering them into one space, sorting, and then choosing what I truly want to keep. The rest I moved into the garden.
As I moved rocks, I considered the projects that have started to feel heavy in my mental-emotional spaces. Most of these were taken on with enthusiasm, but together they are starting to topple my energy.
My soul wants plenty of spaciousness and freedom to flow, to create, to connect in the moment. When I am too busy with promises and projects, I often miss the miracle of showing up for the spontaneous mystery of life.
Part of me believes this sounds selfish, but being busy with too many things that don’t bring joy is like having too many rocks lying around the house: heavy.
Which reminds me of the time-management story where the professor asks her students to fill a glass jar with large rocks (most important), then tiny pebbles (less important but still necessary), and finally sand (insignificant) to reflect the activities in their lives. When the jar is filled in that order, there is room for all three. If the order is reversed, the insignificant activities (sand) take up all the space and there is no room for the most important (rocks).
So maybe gathering all those rocks is a GOOD thing! <grin>
But back to the purpose of this article, which is not only to admit that I can have a sense of humor when I discover how many ways I am not practicing the art of simplicity.
I am writing about…moving rocks!
What’s the purpose of moving (and letting go of) rocks or other treasures…and why do we gather these treasures in the first place?
Humans are made to gather…it’s how we survive times of lack. But when we gather too much, hold on too long, attach too strongly to our belongings, beliefs, and behaviors, then our energy becomes stale rather than flowing.
Movement is essential. It’s how life evolves.
Moving stuff creates freshness in more than our physical spaces. After I moved the rocks and other physical clutter from my house, my mind started to feel lighter…even before I let go of any of my ‘too-many’ projects. The physical moving shifted how I was holding all of my commitments, bringing my mind into balance and releasing the joy flow.
I’m still likely to let go of a few of the projects that are no longer serving, but for now it feels good to simply notice the spaciousness, especially after taking 2-weeks off-grid in the beautiful red ROCK canyons of Valley of Fire.
In this moment, I am also congratulating myself for returning from that trip having left ALL of the rocks in nature where they belong.
Images courtesy of the author
