Organizing Drawers and Life

Yesterday I spent some time organizing a drawer. I had set a goal this year to organize all my drawers. It’s been interesting what I’ve found. This drawer was particularly interesting. I found some memorabilia that I really wanted to keep and enjoyed going through it and reliving the fond memories. I also found gadgets I had absolutely no use for and in honestly thinking about it, I doubted anyone else had any use for them either. In fact, they were really just cluttering up my drawer. They ended up in the trash. I also found some things that needed some fixing up but that I wanted to keep. I put them in a place where I would see them more often so I would remember to take care of them.

It’s interesting how we take time to organize things – like the contents of drawers - but how often do we take time to look at and organize our thoughts, our memories, our hearts? Are there some memories of good times and happier days that have been tucked away and almost forgotten? How about taking some time to bring them forward and relive them now?

And as we honestly look at our thoughts, are there some thoughts that we really have no use for – that just clutter our minds? Maybe they’re left-over thoughts from childhood that don’t apply any more but for some reason we’ve been holding onto them. Maybe they’re thoughts of blaming or holding grudges or comparing ourselves to others. Just like organizing drawers, we need to ask ourselves, “Is this thought really something I want to keep? Does it serve any useful purpose?” If the answer is “no”, then we can let it go – throw it away. It’s our choice. It’s our “drawer” - our mind.

And finally, as we take time to look at our thoughts and hearts, can we see that some things, maybe even relationships, are really worth keeping? They just need some fixing up. And maybe some of the fixing up is something we can do. Maybe we can be a little kinder, a little more patient. As we become more aware, we can make an effort to put these thoughts in the forefront of our mind so we can remember to pay attention to them.

It's a worthwhile thing to go through drawers, thoughts and hearts from time to time.