tripping things away is slowly becoming a new joy in my life. Sending away old clothes. Cutting away my old hair. In the medicine cabinet, only the things I need and use. Don't get me wrong, this apartment has a long way to go overall. But instead of worrying about future hypothetical needs for objects or fretting about wasted money (money is a thing one can't help but waste in one way or another), I have a vision of being surrounded only by the things I love and use. No more. The rest can be released into the world, and it doesn't matter to me a bit what happens to them.

It's amazing that in my spiritual environment that encourages turning away from the material world, decluttering is not better supported and encouraged. (Though Murshid does write on purifying one's environment.) In my own family there's a lot of unspoken guilt, especially concerning items given to us by each other. And in the homes of my friends and associates in the spiritual community, one finds far more cluttered alters of dusty pictures, feathers, and rocks than the simplicity that suggests an ascetic bent.

There's something much more powerful about a clean and bare table.

So I'm working on it. Don't take me for a decluttered saint - I'm a major offender myself. But the more objects I disassociate myself from and release into the world, the better I feel. I'm seeking that feeling of being rid of my physical burdens. I don't want to be responsible for all these things.