Clutter

I read a study a few years ago that found that children who grow up in messy environments tend to think fragmentally, in disorder, in chaos. On the other hand, children who grow up in organized living conditions can focus better and think more clearly. As an adult, I can relate. Before I write or work, I organize my space–I make my bed, I put things where they go, I set out what I need for my task and arrange it in a way that helps me produce. Visually, I can see what needs to be done. Yet, in daily life, this is not the clutter that is more seriously affecting our thinking.

Clutter can be anything that creates a mess, a state of disorder. Clutter gets in the way of our creativity and our ability to produce. It also gets in the way of love. Much like the echoes that confuse the signals in radar, clutter prevents us from understanding, listening, seeing and loving others. What clutters the space between? Thoughts of fear, prejudgments, inflexibility, set ideas about right and wrong, expectations, selfishness, a sense of entitlement, feeling superior and feeling inferior. This clutter creates a state of disorder for the right order of things between us is understanding, compassion, acceptance, kindness and joy.


Today is a good day to start clearing the clutter. Let's start cleaning out the thoughts that keep us from reaching each other. Let's start emptying the mess in our minds and our hearts to see clearly through, to hear each other, to receive each other with nothing in the way.