Looking back over time, homes were a lot smaller and in some cases thirteen children (siblings) shared ONE bed in the family while the parents shared the other bedroom. They grew up closer. Today, every child must have their own "space" and homes have gotten enormous and costly. We must have things we do not really need. As a loved one passes on, we feel obliged to hold onto the stuff from generations past. If you are an only child, you get it ALL. When the stuff gets too much for the home, it spills over into outside storage units. The cycle goes on and on.
As I set here thinking of the warmth and fellowship of our monthly WOTCH (Women of Trinity Church) group after just getting home from it, thoughts begin to reflect on the things that are really important in our lives - friendship, support, love, hope, dreams and just simply "being together". Times today are more complicated, perhaps because life is so fast paced these days that we tend to forget what is really important. Perhaps we have way to much STUFF to get in the way, what would happen to us if we didn't have all that STUFF?
Do we REALLY NEED to be keeping up with the Joneses on the street? We should be proud to be individual and be thankful for our health, or just waking up to a new day. Much of the STUFF we don't even use. If we all sold the STUFF we hardly use, perhaps just have it because it is memorabilia or something handed down to us, we would most likely have enough to pay off our credit cards and get rid of them, or our student loans. At the end of our lives, what will happen to all that STUFF? We cannot take it with us and hopefully you are living a life that will lead you to a place where the lion lays down with the lamb and life is good, in God's present - while the STUFF you left behind is being picked over and fought over.
This fighting can lead families and siblings to part their own ways after losing someone with a feeling of animosity and hatred. They then pass down their feelings to their children, to bring their line further away. At some point, when the closeness of family is needed more than ever there is nothing left one member has no where they feel they can turn. So they lash out onto society for attention. Someone gets hurt (could be one or more) and suddenly they have the attention, and take off to avoid being caught and it becomes a game how much attention can they assume before they get caught. They continue passing their hurt onto others who do not deserve it. Perhaps they see others as happy, and they have become cold and hard - they must destroy that happiness.
Perhaps it is time we clear (get rid of) all that stuff and downsize our lives to 100 things that really matter. Of course, if you are a hoarder type - that may be too drastic of a change, start with paring down to 200-500 items at first. The other stuff - hold a yard sale and get cash to pay down your debt, as debt is also stuff we do not need to hold onto. Then step back and look at who we are, where we came from, and others in our family members in our past. Where are they now? Are they hiding from that one that really needed us, and we were too busy to give a moment of time to? Now, we see them as the outlaw or black sheep - always in trouble.
Maybe, just maybe, what is needed is less STUFF in our lives so we can begin to focus once more on the things that are really important in our lives - friendship, support, love, hope, dreams and just simply "being together". Get into the real problem inside our troubled young one, and see what really is going on. Find a way to draw out their good and make a real difference in today's society. Oh well, just sharing some thoughts here in hopes that we can open a new dialog that unites communities and families, regardless of who they are. Well, now lets hear what you are thinking?
If this article stirred something inside of you, some restlessness, and made you uneasy. Perhaps you need to find a way back to the real things that are important to us in life - friendship, support, love, hope, dreams, and just simply "being together", Join my Tuesday morning moments starting this Tuesday - for details click on http://www.alpha-omegaadvantage.com/ and join The Alpha-Omega Advantage Foundation for Success.
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