Clean This Temple

Over the years, I’ve encountered multiple colleagues who exist in what can only be described as organized chaos. Their workspace would look so chaotic, I couldn’t fathom that they actually knew where things were. Sometimes, just looking at a space like that would make me feel disorganized. Whenever I would feel that way in my home, I’d just start throwing things out. Years ago, I would just take everything in a room, drag it to the center and focus on reorganizing, piece by piece. Obviously, I couldn’t do that with someone else’s workspace, but I would often wonder how they managed.

One of those people was a former supervisor of mine. This person to this very day is a good friend and a trusted professional ally. However, I recall many days of being mystified that they could find anything on their desk. But they could! That’s why I describe it as organized chaos. It looked like a train wreck to me, but it made perfect sense to them. Regardless, I can’t imagine wanting to live in organized chaos. This made me think about how looks can be very deceptive. My old boss wasn’t shy about their work style. It was on the surface for all to see. There were others whose work habits were just as unorganized, but it was more discreet. That’s how people live. 

For some, the dirt is on the surface for all to see. They don’t want or need your judgement. It’s their life. End of sentence. For others, how people perceive them matters so much that they are willing to attempt to sweep all the dirt under the rug in order to appear “together”, rather than dealing with it. I remember this scene from an old cartoon and, eventually, sweeping it under the rug stopped working because there was no more space! It resulted in them needing to address the mess by cleaning it up. Something that should have been done from the beginning. 

That’s hard sometimes though, isn’t it? Addressing the mess. It means that we have to take accountability for that imperfect choice that we, as humans, often make. Errors in judgement are bound to happen. I like the saying or at least the thought that this is why erasers were made. But if we never use the eraser, then we let that error become permanent. When it comes to the way we live, there is only one eraser that will wipe away those errors in judgement and give us a clean slate. We, however, have to be willing to take that step to stop shoving the dirt under the rug. Instead, work on purging it from the house. Why store the mess and let it take up space? Get rid of it! Your space will feel much cleaner and you will feel even more liberated. 

Stay Sunny!

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