I once had a neighbor who worked for a moving company. He told me the story of a house he had been assigned to pack up. He went to the house with his partner. He said they went into the house and had to immediately get out because of the horrendous odor they encountered. Upon investigation it was discovered that the person who had lived in this house for many years had chosen a very inappropriate way of dealing with their garbage. The house had a basement. The owner never carried away their trash. They simply opened the basement door and threw the trash there.
What an inappropriate way to deal with garbage. But how often do we do that very thing? I’m not talking about the garbage of uneaten leftovers, food wrappers, and other household waste. I’m talking about the painful things that get dumped into the center of our souls. Things such as betrayal, broken relationships, and the thousands of other things that cut and crush our spirit. Far too often we simply try to throw these things into the basement of our being and hope they will go away.
Let me suggest a better way of dealing with life’s garbage.
Turn and face it. The garbage of our lives can cause a great deal of pain and fear. If, however, we can step back and become an observer of the pain, fear, anger, and other negative emotions caused by the garbage life can heap on us, it is amazing how much the power can be drained from them.
And be patient with yourself. You may not be able to deal with all of it at once. Some of the garbage may be of such magnitude that you will need to deal with it a bit at a time. We take it the same way we would undertake a long, difficult hike – one step at a time.
Some garbage takes a long time to break down. But the fact is, garbage that is dealt with in the proper way, can lead to beautiful things. The best vegetable and flower gardens are ones that have had a lot of garbage (call it compost, manure, or fertilizer) worked into them.
You can use the garbage in your life to enrich your spirit into a garden of incomparable beauty.
Think about it.
You are loved. Peace.
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