February Cleaning

I cleaned out my closet this weekend. Now that doesn't sound exciting, but considering I've been at sea for three months and some of the boxes hadn't been opened in close to three years, it was interesting. I found all sorts of things, a lot of which I was curious as to why I had kept. Some things were sentimental favours that just aren't part of my life anymore and there were quite a few clothes that I will never wear. There have been many changes happening since I went to sea, emotionally, relationally, work-wise, and I realized as I cleaned my closet that it's also important to clean other areas of one's life as well. If you don't get rid of the old stuff, there isn't going to be room for the new things. Patterns, reactions, and baggage from your past will come back to bite you if you keep carrying it with you and you don't pull it out, examine it and decide what to do with it. When things are painful or difficult, we bury them, put them in a box in the back of the closet, and hope time will heal them. Time helps with the initial pang, but you get to a point where you have to deal with whatever it is and move on. Don't let the past define the future!