"On Storing Junk"

I made a trip to Macy's yesterday for a makeover--although that word is a long stretch of the imagination. Having someone with experience apply one's makeup doesn't even qualify as a "redo," let alone a makeover. The makeup representative wanted to know how she could help me. I asked if she could start by taking 20 years off. Apparently they don't sell that at Macy's. I did come home with some new make-up, however, with no place to store it. 

There are plenty of drawers in my bathroom and, as a single person, I have only my own things to store. The dumping and sorting began. I found the drawers filled with junk. There were items long forgotten, purchased with the hope of having fabulous skin, yet never used. Many products were taking up space with no chance of my ever making them part of a daily regimen. I found a lot of junk. Pure junk.

Why was I holding onto empty containers, old toothbrushes, ancient perfume, and outdated makeup? Why DO I store so much junk? Probably because it's easier to just stuff things in a drawer than deal with it.

As I took a very large bag of trash to the garbage can, I was thinking about how easy it was to rid myself of the junk in my bathroom drawers. My thoughts went from there to the junk we all store within ourselves. Ridding oneself of that junk is not so easy, yet more important than any physical junk we may be storing.

We all have--or have had--things we carry around internally. The generic description in our current society is to call them "issues." Call it that, call it baggage, stuff, junk--It's all the same. It serves no purpose and takes up as much valuable space within a person as old toothbrushes did in my drawer. Holding on to it is detrimental to one's growth, both spiritually and emotionally.  

Why DO we hold on to this personal junk? Probably for the same reason as in the physical--it's easier to stuff it away than to deal with it.

It is junk, however. The more we have, the less able we are to live life. Junk is toxic to our inner beings. It taints and poisons.

What, exactly, is inner junk? Perhaps one is holding onto a relationship that fell apart, along with its emotions and pain. There might be an unwillingness to let go of a personal affront or offense. Maybe there was an unpleasant incident at work, on the road, at a family gathering. The possible situations are varied, uniquely individual, and without end.

The longer we hold onto any unfavorable facet of an experience or incident, the more harmful it becomes. Left unaddressed, the situation never improves. It is always a negative and will always have a negative effect on how we live life.

Think of it as a rock that is thrown into water, the concentric circles rippling out and touching whatever they come in contact with. An unresolved issue is the same as it moves out and brushes other areas of our lives. It grows and grows, eventually enveloping the whole of our being, the antithesis of a healthy state.

Getting rid of junk isn't easy. And yet it is. For me, it was a decision, coupled with asking my Creator to basically clean me out. Some of it has been hard, because I didn't want to look at myself in light and truth. The end result has always been positive, though. At this point in my life, I can honestly say the outcome is worth it.

I must say, too, that my organized bathroom has become a motivator to address a whole lot of other areas of physical junk in my house. Perhaps I misunderstood what kind of a makeover I would be getting.