Jewish Musings, Sunday, 9/18/2016

[savtele]

What’s on your mind – how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika
Beryl
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

[savtele]

Boker Tov & Shavuah Tov All!

Some time ago, I came across a questions on FB: your favorite season, and why. I answered: Fall - for the light and the abundance of the Earth before dormancy sets in. I would like to spend some time this week looking at the different types of "abundance" available to us, and sometimes hampering us. Let's start with the "hampering" part.

Somehow, over the years, I have acquired "too much stuff!" Dishes I don't use, sheets for bed sizes we don't have, knickknacks that require dusting (or at least running through the dishwasher) at least once every season, clothing that doesn't fit/is out of style, shoes I can't walk in anymore. Exercise equipment being used for a clothing rack or just dust catcher. Somehow, this 1340 sq ft house PLUS full basement is stuffed to the rafters! So I am beginning a "cleanse" - and no, it doesn't involve green juice or 20 pounds of raw carrots. (although I think it did start when I cleaned out my pantry last Tuesday) So far, I've cleaned out several cabinets (I'm looking around for a good home for my mom's old dishes)

Weddings are coming up, some stuff will be wrapped up & passed on, perhaps with a story of where the item came from. Still other stuff will just head out to GoodWill/Salvation Army or VA. (I have an excellent weight bench that I really have no room or use for.)

I feel "lighter" just thinking about it! It's good to move out the old to make way for the new - even if the old is "stuff" and the new are "ideas" - poems, songs, music. Somehow, I don't think they will require dusting quite so often!

I know that this is a process that we undertake at various times in our lives. I am at a point where, in order to make way for the new, I need to remove some of the old.

Can any of you relate?

[gazelle18]

Pardon me if I have related this before, but it is apropos to the subject. A few days after hurricane Katrina (we had evacuated to my parents' house ) I realized this: my house in New Orleans has completely flooded. Every physical thing that I still owned (and which was not under water) was located in the trunk of our car. It seemed overwhelming.

A few months later, after insurance settlements and a good many trips to Target, etc.,we had managed to fill up an entire townhouse, which was our temporary, post- hurricane home. Now, 11 years after Katrina, we have a new home (Thank the Lord for insurance!!!) and it is filled to the rafters!!

I don't need, or ever wear, half the stuff in my closet. As Anglika pointed out, there are MANY shoes I can't wear anymore. My pantry is in desperate need of a clean out. My whole house needs a clean out, and I have been slowly doing this.

I recently realized that I have stopped buying "things." We have clothes to wear. We have tchotchkes. Nowadays, I just tend to replace stuff that I have used up.

Thanks for a great topic, Angelika. Hope everyone has a great week!

[hollygail]

Do we really have to go there? I just plain don't want to face the excess stuff I have... I too have a closet full of clothes I don't wear (and that I don't wear for so many reasons, none of which is that they don't fit me any more; I got rid of all my size 14s as soon as I got back to size 12; I have only a very few size 12s in my closet, although I still wear some of my size 10s now that I'm a size 8). I'm not willing to part with my beautiful silk blouses. I'm just not. I wear them a couple of times a year (and I have well over a "couple" of 'em). A couple of years ago I wore each of two bridesmaids dresses I had in the closet from two weddings I was in about 20ish years ago (neither dress fits; way too big, but I pulled both looks off; did I say this was for Purim and I dressed as Esther for the first time since I was a child? I usually go as Vashti). Very few shoes other than the few pairs I wear...

[louise]

Not only do I have too much stuff, I have way too much of it all over the place. And when I'm in the dumps I am even more likely to have it spill across any (every) available surface. I had decided just this morning to get rid of a lot of shoes - haven't worn them for years, not likely I will again, especially since I become ever more careful about proper support, etc. For better or for worse I have given away my biggest clothes several times in the last few years and then had to buy them again. Oh well! Big time problem with paper - just not willing to let go of it. Will focus on the shoes today - I need a pair of comfortable dress shoes for the HHD - for all I know I already have them!

Lynne - harrowing to hear your Katrina story whenever you mention it. On a very loosely related subject there was an explosion in Manhattan last night. It happened right across the street from my office. Apparently 29 people were injured but none too seriously. These things are always scary - a real "there but for the grace of God moment" when it happens on a block you walk regularly (or any where for that matter but you know what I mean).

On to the shoes.
btw - Beryl was happy to see your name back in the line-up!

[lee058]

Hi everybody. Just a quick note to say that DS has his job orientation on Wednesday!! We went shopping today to buy some Dockers so he will be dressed appropriately for work.

Re today's topic: I have so much stuff that I need to sort through. Once DS is working and I have more time, I think I can get a lot done.

Have a peaceful rest of the day, Lee

[brgmsn]

I made getting rid of things my goal this summer. I still have way too much. Way too much. It's overwhelming and depressing. I do get rid of clothes. I have clothes from 10 years ago I still wear. I was bigger, but they still are OK. Shoes? I get rid of them for some reason.
Lee, mazel tov! Can't wait to hear about his orientation! Where will he be working?
Lynne, I agree--thank G-d you all were OK. Stuff can be (and was!) replaced!
Louise, so scary to hear about it. I don't know they've decided what the explosion was from.
I remember an Oprah show talking about clutter. The discussion was that when your head is filled with clutter and "Stuff", so is your home. And when you clean your home of all the stuff lying around you rid your head of the clutter too.
Not sure if it works.

[peachymom1]

Hello everyone! I am actually the nag in the family about getting rid of stuff, and DH is the hang-on-to-things-forever one. I don't have any clothes or shoes that I don't wear, and that includes underwear, workout wear and summer wear. DH, on the other hand, has a closet full of God-knows-what, most of which he can't wear. Fortunately, our bedroom has two closets, so we each have our own.

On another subject, DD27 and her fiancee FINALLY found a venue for their wedding and put down a deposit. The wedding will be December 9, 2017, so they have over a year to do all their planning. They've written up their guest list and have chosen their attendants, so they're well on their way. DD's fiancee's parents divorced when she was a teenager, and she has a stepmother she's close to, so her dad and stepmother will walk her to the chuppah. Her mother passed away about a year and a half ago, so she and DD decided to have a chair adorned with flowers in the first row at the ceremony, left empty in memory of her mother. I thought that was a beautiful and thoughtful way to honor her.