Cleaning House Today....Literally and Figuratively

When you embark on the tedious job of cleaning out your closet you are faced with decisions.  What do you want to keep and what do you want to get rid of? For me it is tough.  I am always going to lose ten pounds and saving the smaller clothes until later.  The problem is.... am I committed to the weight loss?  Do I really like the clothes or am I just putting it off until I can face the decision? So many times....later never comes.

This may seem simplistic but it's like life. Some of the toughest decisions we have to make are those that we put off indefinitely until finally...we are faced with a choice that we cannot avoid. Literally refers to the horrible job of physically cleaning out something.  Figuratively....means cleaning out your mind or your heart of "stuff "that shouldn't be there. There is junk in our head that is simply wasting our precious time.

Here's how I look at life.  Let's just say for arguments sake, we have 100 energy units a day.  You are the one who chooses how to use them.  For me it is a big waste of time to continue to use them in the same way every day.  How many times can you clean your closet without really giving away the clothes? Let's apply this to behavior now. Figuratively, how many times can you look at the same person who treats people disrespectfully and say...it's okay? You cannot. At some point you have to move on.

Human nature is a funny thing. Many people are naturally forgiving and continue to forgive even through the worst of circumstances.  But one day they wake up and realize that being disrespected chips away at your self esteem and uses a lot of energy units to process.

I am beginning a project about a person who watches this behavior toward someone that he knows very well. It is so easy for him to see the missteps of a person showing passive aggressive behavior toward anyone who achieves more than she does. She rears the ugly green of jealousy more often than she realizes. He tries to speak to her, gently at first, and then with more intent because he hopes that her behavior in unintentional.  But alas, he learns that she is conniving and manipulative and....yes her intent is too hurt.

Disappointed and after careful consideration, he pulls away from her negativity and watches her from away. People in her path fall by the wayside....one by one with broken hearts.

Essentially, he has decided to "clean his closet."  He removes her from his head by pushing thoughts of their friendship away whenever she comes to mind.  Eventually....thoughts of her fade away....and he can now remove her from his heart.

 In my mind's eye I see him standing on a cliff by a beach...and symbolically dropping a stone into the water.  He watches its descent and breathes deeply.  A memory of her flashes through his brain and he shakes it away, like an unwelcome cobweb.  He has been grieving for what could have been...perhaps love.....but now he simply has let go. 

"It's done," he speaks to the wind and turns and walks back to the weatherworn house of his childhood. He feels the ocean breeze on his back and hears a whisper in the wind. Turning quickly, he is sure that is her voice.

Her breathy voice echoes in his brain.  "Good-bye my friend....good-bye."