STUFF

Stuff:

It suffocates me.

I don’t want any more stuff. It swallows me whole.

I can’t breathe anymore.

Please, take all my stuff. I can’t move.

Look at all the stuff. Look at the mountains. Look in the seas, look at the “E” stuff.

I want to be free. Of these things.

That suffocate me.

How much do I need?

I get rid of my stuff.

Boomerang.

It comes back inside, somehow.  Funnels back through others.

 It’s creeping back here and there and there and there.

Times four.

I hate stuff. It owns me.

 My time and my energy.

I move my stuff from one place to another.

I buy stuff for others.

I organize my stuff.

I agonize over my stuff.

I store my stuff.

I pour over my stuff.
I break my stuff.

I fix my stuff.

I clean my stuff.

I forget about some of my stuff.

I stumble upon old forgotten stuff.

I search for stuff,

Even stuff I already gave away.

I buy new stuff to replace the old.

I buy useless stuff.
I throw stuff out.

I recycle stuff.

I give stuff away.

I buy the stuff I gave away

And on it goes…..

Deep down do I really hate stuff?

Show me Lord, how to make peace with stuff.

© Tavane Nelson, July 17 2015

As I get older, getting rid of stuff seems to preoccupy much of my time. With three grown children still at home and a household total of five, I’ve started to hate stuff so much, that one poem wasn’t enough! I had to write two of them, to get it out of my system.

I believe the first part of life as an adult is about gathering. The last part of life is about purging. The problem is, I can’t seem to get to the purging because as soon as I empty one closet, it’s filled back up within a week. I think I could happily live a minimalist’s life if I could. A few years back, I went on a trip to Cuba. We could learn a few things about recycling from the Cubans! With the US trade embargoes, Cuban citizens are the masters of making do with little, and making what they do have last a long time.  For example, almost all of the vehicles are from the 1950’s era. The Cubans take loving care of those vehicles, constantly fixing, and repainting, because there are no other options. This Cuban farmer was so proud of his truck, that it was part of his farm tour for the tourists.

I watched a newscast on how our electronic waste was being shipped to third world countries, and I was devastated. Three years ago, I owned a Blackberry that went kaput. I took it to get repaired, and they told me it was cheaper to get a new one. It was only two years old! I went on the internet, and two hours later repaired the faulty antenna by taking the back off and following the instructions using a teeny tiny screwdriver.

Same story with my dishwasher. My husband told me to get a new one as it had stopped working, and the repair charge was astronomical. After searching the internet on how to fix a dishwasher that won’t drain, I found the answer. There was water in the bottom pan that had triggered a sensor to prevent drainage. After unscrewing all the panels, and mopping up the water, voila! Three years later the dishwasher is still going strong.

Of course, it’s human nature to sound all high and mighty, and I’m sure if all my stuff was gone, I wouldn’t be able to live without a lot of it. Oh well, I can at least try to simplify my life. My grandmother pretty much gave all her stuff away in her old age. I hope I can be at that point sooner than later. The older I become, the more I feel like an alien living on this earth, because I know my permanent home is in Heaven where Jesus has prepared a room for me. I need to keep my eyes focused on those things that have eternal value and stuff just gets in the way.

Do Not Love The World:

Do not love the world or anything in the world.¹ If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man,³ the lust of his eyes⁴ and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away,⁵ but the man who does the will of God⁶ lives forever.

1 John 2:15 – 17.