Where’s Your Stuff? June 27, 2014
Posted by nrhatch in Less IS More, Life Balance.trackback
Some years back, a tourist from the United States visited the home of a Rabbi and saw a simple room furnished with books, a table, and a bench.
Astonished, the visitor asked, “Rabbi, where’s your stuff?”
The Rabbi replied, “Where’s yours?”
“Mine? I’m just passing through. I’m just a visitor here.”
“So am I.”
Aah . . . that’s better!
Related post: Lightening The Load (SuziCate) * Overlook (365 Simplify)
Source: e-mail from unknown author
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Perfect! I think we’re all guilty of having too much stuff! I plan to do some purging this weekend. Thanks for the reminder, Nancy!
Good luck with the purge, Jill. Spring is a great time to clean out our “hobbit holes.”
It’s an on-going effort here. We keep a box in the closet. Anytime we come across something for which we no longer have a useful purpose, it goes into the box to be given away. Books go to the library. The rest of the stuff goes to Habitat for Humanity or Goodwill.
loose the baggage, great post
Loose lips sink ships . . . loose baggage weighs us down. We travel best when we travel light.
Reblogged this on paddypicasso and commented:
clutter amounts to nothing in the end
I love it when e-mails like this land in my in-box. Such a great message.
baggage has to be left behind, it’s the story of forgiveness, blessings
We travel best when we travel light.
No doubt about it, we like our stuff. It’s hard to determine the essential from the not so much. And at times I have unloaded almost everything, to go back later and wonder what was I thinking!
Anytime I’ve walked into a one room cabin with a loft for sleeping, I’ve thought about how little we really need to survive and thrive.
Many of us are weighed down by detritus that sucks the energy out of us. The more I give away, the lighter I feel.
Do you remember the hilarious George Carlin bit about Americans and our “stuff?” He was spot on. And so was this post.
I love that George Carlin bit!
LOL, I’ve never seen this before, but gosh this is brilliant, he had in laughing tears in minutes… My only complain, it ended to soon, half in the middle of my belly laugh 😉
There may be a longer version on youtube, Anne. I just grabbed the first one I saw. What a brilliant man.
The older I get, the less stuff I want.
Same here. We’ve downsized over the last 15 years. With each move, we toss more stuff overboard.
And we still have stuff that we could live without.
Cool response! We could stand to lighten our load, but we do manage to keep it to the point where we aren’t too stacked up… we can fit the cars in the garage easily 🙂
Being able to fit the cars in the garage is great!
Wonderful 🙂
Blessings Friend and Have a Great Week End ~
Thanks, Morgan.
Amen! I have lived in the same house for 12 years and could do without plenty of our stuff.
We’ve come far . . . but we have miles to go.
Love it! That’s my new mission, to reduce the clutter and “stuff” in my life! Great reminder!
Some stuff enhances our lives . . . other stuff is just dead weight. Have fun with your clutter busting.
Seven years ago I had reason to call 999/911 for help. The guys decided we were not wasting time for me to pack a bag. I ended up in cardiac care. They provided me with two of those paper examination gowns (one to wear with the opening down the back and the other to go over it with the opening down the front.), a tooth brush, toothpaste, soap & a towel. Elly was on her honeymoon and I refused to have her called. As you see, I survived without a bag full of unnecessary items. It taught me a great lesson.
Just realised it was seven years ago today!
I’m glad you’re still around to share the tale!
Part of the reason we have so much stuff is that we are too busy to sort through our stuff to decide what to keep and what to toss.
Glad you had a good outcome from your emergency hospitalization.
I sold two things on eBay today that I’ve had for 20 years. I had second thoughts packing them up, but now that Mr. Postman has them.. I’m perfectly fine. Got that much more space on my shelf.
Yay! For 99% of the stuff we’ve sold, donated, or given away, it’s been “out of sight, out of mind.”
Lightening the load is liberating.
Stuff and nonsense!
(Which means I agree.)
I expect you’re in the middle of doing some paring down as you get ready to move from Point A to Point B ~ just keep “stuff and nonsense” as your mantra and you’ll do great.
I’m hoping my husband will springclean the garage while I’m away later in the year. Stuff gets me down.
What a mood boost that would be on your return home.
This has spurred me on Nancy! I haven’t done my spring clear out yet …. but have 100% committed to give away 2 similar items if I buy a new one.
Funny … in my previous life we used to move house in order to let go of stuff and move on … Now I am settled and the stuff is still here.
Val x
Awesome commitment, Val. And I feel much the same. We have downsized and donated and moved twice, continually clearing out excess . . . and we still have way more stuff than the Rabbi.
I purged big time during my last move and it didn’t hurt a bit! 😀
I am decidedly happier when I have space in my living space.
Well said, well said. And so true! Now if we could just wrap our mind around that, the world would be a better (and neater) place 🙂
Ego likes to acquire STUFF for ease of comparison ~> to make sure he’s keeping up with the Joneses. Once we realize that we don’t need to be better than anyone else, the need to compete and compare fades away.
Hear, hear!!! It’s amazing how much effort we put in to meet everyone else’s expectation of what our life should be. It takes strong and aware persons to take a step back, and decide, this is not for me, and then DO something about it! And leaving the need to compare and compete, is a good place to start…
This just landed in my In-Box:
“Our lack of self frees us from the compulsion to secure ourselves within the world. We do not need to become more real by becoming wealthy, or famous, or powerful, or beautiful. We are able to realize our nonduality with the world because we are freed from such fixations.” – David Loy, “Healing Ecology” (Tricycle)
I think I have mentioned before that a couple of Springs ago I did a big clean out. We still have some big items that we need to donate and little stuff keeps creeping in but I have managed to keep it down. Still like you said we still have “stuff” we could live without. I am tired of cleaning, really tired of cleaning.. 😀 CH’s garage is a whole other story!
Like most things in life, it’s good to focus on “progress” without expecting “perfection” ~> cleaning (especially dusting) is much easier when we have less stuff to maneuver about. 😎