Clearing Out The Spiritual Junk Drawer
Posted: March 1, 2013
Rural Pen
In recent weeks, I’ve cleaned out a crammed closet, sorted through four overstocked bookcases and picked through the accumulation in my nightstand. These are tasks performed every decade or so, wouldn’t you say?
But there is one spot in my house I have never, ever cleaned.
It’s the junk drawer. I’ve never sorted through its contents. The junk drawer is exempt, off limits, immune from cleaning tasks. My mother never cleaned her junk drawer; neither did her mother before her.
During Lent, we avail ourselves to spiritual scrutiny and, like spring cleaning, sort through our faults and try to do better. The usual suspects come to my attention again: I’m selfish, judgmental and lazy.
But this year — maybe because of spending more time alone — I’m becoming aware of traits, motives and defects previously unexamined.
What is in this junk drawer anyway? Various tapes, package of glow sticks, glass treatment, a spool of green string, a spool of white string, party noisemaker, international adaptor set, wire brush, smiley pin, dust masks, outlet covers, spool of thin red wire, white ceramic doorknobs, red reflector, clip-on eyeglass case, coat hook, combination lock, microcassette tape, bits of chain, mailbox sticky number 4, utility box labels, spool of thin green wire, numerous die, egg timer, hair nets, empty film canisters, clip-on flashlight and a Wal-Mart employee pin.
It’s pretty overwhelming, what to do with all this stuff.
Lessons learned:
- Don’t let things pile up. They get all mixed together and you can’t get them apart.
- Don’t keep things you don’t and will never need.
- Put things away in their proper places.
Maybe … this is unthinkable … maybe I can do away with the junk drawer. Is it possible?
Eliminating the junk drawer will force me to put things where they belong or throw them away. And what of my spiritual junk drawer? Should I deal with things as they come up? Or bury them?
Here’s one thing I’ve recently rediscovered: “Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.”
I’d rather keep this hidden. For the past few weeks, when struck by others’ faults, I’ve been asking myself, “How am I like that?”
I see now, however, that I should also apply it positively. When I see another person’s virtues, I should ask, “How am I like that?”
Why is this so hard? The things I love about myself are all tangled up in the things I hate about myself. It’s all buried in the recesses of the junk drawer.
But until we open that drawer to look, we will never see, amidst all the junk, the jewels.
But there is one spot in my house I have never, ever cleaned.
It’s the junk drawer. I’ve never sorted through its contents. The junk drawer is exempt, off limits, immune from cleaning tasks. My mother never cleaned her junk drawer; neither did her mother before her.
During Lent, we avail ourselves to spiritual scrutiny and, like spring cleaning, sort through our faults and try to do better. The usual suspects come to my attention again: I’m selfish, judgmental and lazy.
But this year — maybe because of spending more time alone — I’m becoming aware of traits, motives and defects previously unexamined.
What is in this junk drawer anyway? Various tapes, package of glow sticks, glass treatment, a spool of green string, a spool of white string, party noisemaker, international adaptor set, wire brush, smiley pin, dust masks, outlet covers, spool of thin red wire, white ceramic doorknobs, red reflector, clip-on eyeglass case, coat hook, combination lock, microcassette tape, bits of chain, mailbox sticky number 4, utility box labels, spool of thin green wire, numerous die, egg timer, hair nets, empty film canisters, clip-on flashlight and a Wal-Mart employee pin.
It’s pretty overwhelming, what to do with all this stuff.
Lessons learned:
- Don’t let things pile up. They get all mixed together and you can’t get them apart.
- Don’t keep things you don’t and will never need.
- Put things away in their proper places.
Maybe … this is unthinkable … maybe I can do away with the junk drawer. Is it possible?
Eliminating the junk drawer will force me to put things where they belong or throw them away. And what of my spiritual junk drawer? Should I deal with things as they come up? Or bury them?
Here’s one thing I’ve recently rediscovered: “Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.”
I’d rather keep this hidden. For the past few weeks, when struck by others’ faults, I’ve been asking myself, “How am I like that?”
I see now, however, that I should also apply it positively. When I see another person’s virtues, I should ask, “How am I like that?”
Why is this so hard? The things I love about myself are all tangled up in the things I hate about myself. It’s all buried in the recesses of the junk drawer.
But until we open that drawer to look, we will never see, amidst all the junk, the jewels.
Luanne Austin lives in Mount Sidney. Contact her at RuralPen@aol.com, www.facebook.com/rural pen or care of the DN-R.