Clearing clutter from life feels like crawling out of a dark and constricted cave into fresh air on a bright and sunny mountaintop. If you allow it, even the smallest triumph can be a source of pride. You can sit back and relax overlooking a freshly mown lawn and weeded garden. You can cross your arms and admire a shiny, clean sink and clear countertop before bedtime. Watching a disordered shamble of sheets and blankets on the bed smooth out into a freshly made bed under your hands can give you a sense of power and accomplishment.
Carry the celebration of your discipline into the rest of your life. By clearing your mind of the clutter of things that don’t matter, you can do things like finding your dream career, pursuing your creative callings, and enjoying the love in your life in the moments it comes to you. At the end of the day, and at the end of your lifetime, the clutter that orbited your life here and there won’t matter. There’s no sense in beating yourself up over a clutter problem you once had any more than there is a point to clinging to clutter when it will all be scattered to the four winds in a hundred years.
Play the following game with your kids or by yourself the next time you walk out your front door: Scan your surroundings for things that cannot be bought or stolen. These things might be a smile from a woman walking her dog on the sidewalk, or the smell of a spring rain. These instants of beauty and love in the world are what truly matter, so much so that people characterize these things as above and beyond the material world. Spirituality is what we call those missing puzzle pieces that truly fit into our lives, and in that spirit, I hope you will never find yourself wanting for anyone or anything.