I'm Only a Visitor Here

I have been trying very hard to simplify my life. As I mentioned before I find that I have too much ‘stuff’ that I’m holding on to for one stupid reason or another. In the past my attempts at discarding things would fail, and I would always find myself accumulating more. This stuff has a way of multiplying. So now I have made my Wednesdays, the day to find something that I’m holding on to needlessly. The reason I chose Wednesday is because that’s the day I put my garbage out. I could probably gather all this stuff to put aside and have a yard sale, but I find that unless I make a decision to part with them and do it, I never will. Plus I don't want to sell my junk to someone else.

Most times, the stuff that I discard is picked up by someone other than the garbage man. I just got rid of a TV that I had been holding on to for a year in the hopes that I would get around to fixing. I had a neighbor years ago in West Roxbury who would pick up all kinds of things and bring them home. He always had some glorious plan of what he would do with each item. One day his furnace needed to be serviced and I happened to be oustside when the repair man came. I noticed that the repairman left about five minutes after his arrival. I thought that he might have forgotten something and had gone back to get it. But shortly thereafter I could hear my neighbor's wife yelling at him. I couldn't help but overhearing their argument. She was mad at her husband because he had accumulated so much junk that the repairman refused to work in his basement until he made room.

If I didn’t discard that TV, I probably would have held on to it for another year. I wonder how much stuff has to be discarded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I hope that the following little story from the book, “When Life Hurts”, by Rabbi Wayne Dosick will get you thinking about what's truly important in life.

In the last century, a tourist from America visited the famous Polish rabbi Chofetz Chaim. The tourist was amazed to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room filled with books. The only furniture was a narrow bed, small table, and one straight-backed chair.
“Rabbi, where is your furniture?” asked the tourist.
The Chofetz Chaim looked at him and asked, “where is yours?”
“Mine? But I’m only a visitor here.”
Said the rabbi, “so am I.”

I think that sometimes we forget that we’re only passing through. God has given us so many wonderful things that are free, yet we lose sight of all the natural beauty when we clutter our lives with unnecessary ‘stuff.’

A wise man once said, "Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves."