Hello, Friends!
     Our family is in yet another phase of clearing out, sorting, packing and unpacking, moving things from one room to another, as our living configurations undergo yet another adaptation to changing life circumstance.
     Meanwhile, my office has once again become a repository for the books, mementos, photographs, and other miscellany typical of every family’s accumulations over the years.
     So today I have a choice in how I approach our process, and how I look at the stacks of assorted “stuff” filling up my usually fairly orderly work space here at the church.
     I’m not anywhere near being a neat freak or even an exceptionally tidy person.  But I do try to keep my office at the church relatively free of clutter, and thus relatively amenable to hosting those in my spheres of pastoral connection.  I also find I can think better, if my exterior spaces aren’t too disorganized and overfull.
      Here’s the positive reframing of the situation I’m trying on today, to fend off any tendency toward impatience and frustration with our processes of sorting, sifting, parceling, and reconfiguring:
     Today I choose to see what’s around me not as clutter, but as a rich and varied collection of talismans of our family’s rich and varied life.   We’ve all enjoyed reading and learning over the years—hence all the books.  We’ve had lots of occasions to mark and celebrate—hence the photos, certificates, medallions, and trophies collected in boxes.  We’ve been blessed to be able to travel, and to experience vicariously the travels of my parents—hence all the art objects, mementos, and other tokens of other cultures filling boxes and occupying shelf space.
     I don’t plan to keep all these things.  Some things will be sorted and reboxed for donation (maybe to our garage sale!); others will be set out for all of us to enjoy—and still others will be passed along to loved ones who can enjoy them today, and in time to come.   Many of the books are being shelved anew, for rediscovery and sharing with others.
       Today I choose to be grateful for all these signs of living and giving and learning in my family
—and I look forward to doing all those things with you this Sunday, and all our days to come.    

Shalom,

Sarah