The Law of Acquisition

Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Third Degree of Contrast.

It’s not exactly “baggage.”  It’s not ballast either. Yet, it weighs me down, and I am lightening up yet again. Yes, it’s an ongoing process, with the lightening starting in the spiritual, then mental, and progressing through the emotional and finally now in the physical, just as fast as I can make it happen.

This is what I know for myself when I open the large linen closet  that’s so packed  that towels are falling out every time I open the door.

I’d long ago gotten into the habit of giving away old towels and  sheets to charities  that collect them for pet welfare clinics. That wasn’t the problem.

The problem  was  that  there  were  plenty  of  other items that were “still good.” Like cheap hand towels and dishcloths someone gave  me, ones that had never even been used, but I didn’t like them and just put them on the back shelf, out of the way. Like the sheets I slept on with my ex, which I haven’t slept on since and yet there they were in the back of the closet.

I filled up a carload of garbage and charity items, then handed the  super-sized  lawn bags to the girls and told them to each fill a bag from their rooms. Shannon came back with 4 bags and counting. Aislinn had a bag or two and then just rearranged her room to hide the rest. We all had  a  general  sense  of  disgust.  Stuff.  Just  so  much “stuff.”

Some items meant something  at the time or had potential at the time or were meant for a future that never happened. Some were  associated with a particular phase of life, but the girls are too grown-up for their children’s toys  now  and  stuffed  animals  are  now  hibernating  in sealed bins in the garage, a sort of purgatory for older items that they can’t bear to part with. Other items were unwanted gifts, largely from  people who didn’t want to throw away something  so they pushed it off  on us because we had a bigger house.

But mostly, we’re just disgusted at all the “stuff” we’re ridding ourselves  of. Things we’ve been attached to that have attached to us energetically.

There are only two things we can do:

1. Continue as we can to rid ourselves physically  of that  which  no  longer  serves  us,  that  which  no  longer holds us by sentiment or at least moving it a step farther from us while we detach.
2. Ensure that we do not replace “stuff” with “stuff.” For the past six months, the girls and I (particularly Shannon and I) have become  much pickier shoppers, always asking now if it’s something  we really  need or will we simply relegate it to the back of a closet to be lightened up in a year or two. We are now looking beyond the momentary desire  and understanding that all physical items have energy that can drag at us and take up sacred space, and weighing the energetic value of the items we choose to acquire—and that is our Law of Acquisition.