Mama Jens Gets Spiritual on Your Ass
There are a couple of themes running around in my head these days. One is letting go of material possessions. This has got to be one of the most liberating ideas I can think of. I have always been one to find "things" a little distracting...I like a clean, empty house. But an empty house is not the most comfortable and practical place to hang out, so we have accumulated. And accumulation just weighs one down - literally and spiritually, of course. So I am always try to get rid of things or at least organize them in such a way that they take up as little space as possible. But a much better solution is just to get rid of the damn shit.
You see, we are gonna make a pretty major international move here within the year and there's this small problem of getting everything from Point A to Point B. The door-to-door moving quotes are just outrageous. It seems crazy to spend that much money when you can furnish a whole house for the same amount (or much less, even). So, one by one, each piece of furniture is getting the following monologue from me: You are beautiful. You are a rare 1960's find. But you are not real. You are just a hinderance to my final goal. I will let go of you and you will be fine and I will be fine. If I need an equally beautiful and functional piece of furniture in the future, it will be no problem to find one. And, voilà!, one less thing to move.
If you could only hang onto a few material possessions, what would they be? For me I guess I would just keep the things that have nostalgic value - my journals, my paintings. For the children, I think it would be too stark to get rid of everything. I would take all their clothes and toys along so as to have some consistency in their environment. In general though, I think children are still pretty free of the distraction of matieral possessions. As long as the people that love and take care of them are there, they are pretty set. Of course, some children become really attached to one thing - a blanket or stuffed animal, but that again is an emotional attachment.
And here is a little something for you neurotic Mamas and Papas:
"If we look into our lives, we will see clearly how many unimportant tasks, so-called 'responsibilities' accumulate to fill them up. One master compares them to 'housekeeping in a dream.' We tell ourselves we want to spend time on the important things of life, but there never is any time. Even simply to get up in the morning, there is so much to do: open the window, make the bed, take a shower, brush your teeth, feed the dog or cat, do last night's washing up, discover you are out of sugar or coffee, go and buy them, make breakfast - the list is endless. Then there are clothes to sort out, choose, iron, and fold up again. And what about your hair or your make-up? Helpless, we watch our days fill up with telephone calls and petty projects, with so many responsibilities - or shouldn't we call them 'irresponsibilities'?" -Sogyal Rinpoche
We gotta just relax, man, and enjoy our lives and kids. There will always be time for taking care of the logistics. Now if only I can manage to really put that into practice. Holy Flippin' Neurotic Mama Jens.
You see, we are gonna make a pretty major international move here within the year and there's this small problem of getting everything from Point A to Point B. The door-to-door moving quotes are just outrageous. It seems crazy to spend that much money when you can furnish a whole house for the same amount (or much less, even). So, one by one, each piece of furniture is getting the following monologue from me: You are beautiful. You are a rare 1960's find. But you are not real. You are just a hinderance to my final goal. I will let go of you and you will be fine and I will be fine. If I need an equally beautiful and functional piece of furniture in the future, it will be no problem to find one. And, voilà!, one less thing to move.
If you could only hang onto a few material possessions, what would they be? For me I guess I would just keep the things that have nostalgic value - my journals, my paintings. For the children, I think it would be too stark to get rid of everything. I would take all their clothes and toys along so as to have some consistency in their environment. In general though, I think children are still pretty free of the distraction of matieral possessions. As long as the people that love and take care of them are there, they are pretty set. Of course, some children become really attached to one thing - a blanket or stuffed animal, but that again is an emotional attachment.
And here is a little something for you neurotic Mamas and Papas:
"If we look into our lives, we will see clearly how many unimportant tasks, so-called 'responsibilities' accumulate to fill them up. One master compares them to 'housekeeping in a dream.' We tell ourselves we want to spend time on the important things of life, but there never is any time. Even simply to get up in the morning, there is so much to do: open the window, make the bed, take a shower, brush your teeth, feed the dog or cat, do last night's washing up, discover you are out of sugar or coffee, go and buy them, make breakfast - the list is endless. Then there are clothes to sort out, choose, iron, and fold up again. And what about your hair or your make-up? Helpless, we watch our days fill up with telephone calls and petty projects, with so many responsibilities - or shouldn't we call them 'irresponsibilities'?" -Sogyal Rinpoche
We gotta just relax, man, and enjoy our lives and kids. There will always be time for taking care of the logistics. Now if only I can manage to really put that into practice. Holy Flippin' Neurotic Mama Jens.
posted by mama jens at 10:58 AM
3 Comments:
What? You're moving from Berlin or what? BTW, like the new look of your blog!
Thanks! It looks a little more chocolate-y this way! And, yes, looks like we're gonna jump the pond. 8 years in Germany...time to go, man!!
Dear Jen … I’ve not read them all, but this could be your best blog to date – at least it struck a chord deep inside this busy man, who has succeeded in cluttering his life with chores. I’ve been pretty good at keeping “things” at bay … I don’t care if my car is older than most of my neighbors (not their cars mind you but them!) and I view possessions generally as encumbrances, as tokens of our addiction to the culture of money and conspicuous consumption … but I am addicted to chores and too often find myself at the end of the day staring at my little boy and realizing I didn’t sit with him and listen to his chatter nearly long enough, or watch him stuff playdoh into the ears of his pig or answer the thousand questions he mumbled in the new and indecipherable bridge language he is speaking as he struggles to make sense of Mama’s German and Papa’s drawly southern English while deciding which he will use to name this or that animal or color of phenomenon.
Thanks for another brilliant piece of writing. And even though we’ve never met – I am sorry (for my selfish self) that you are leaving Germany just as we are making our way there …
Richard
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