Elbow Room
Space helps me to breath. The more space I can see, the more uncluttered my mind feels, the more at peace my heart is. Why is it that the more space we have, the more we need to put into it? I am continually striving to remove things from my spaces to create more room for living and just being. The harder I resist, however, the more I can see that it will perpetually be an uphill battle.
The older my kids get, the more things I have removed from our home, in hopes of creating more elbow room for them and for us. Their toys and bodies necessitate more areas to play in, and the older they grow, the more toys they acquire and the bigger their bodies become; therefore, we’ve lost a few pieces of furniture from some of our living spaces to accommodate this. They weren’t highly treasured pieces, mind you, or we would miss them. Some of the furniture that’s gone by the wayside – our huge couches, replaced with smaller, space friendly, easy-to-clean pieces; our sharp-cornered coffee table, a constant hazard to wobbly little footsteps; our kitchen sideboard, a great IKEA purchase, but a notorious junk collector; our birdcage (the poor lovebirds, who had a tendency to bite little fingers anyway, found a better home); and the large computer cabinet, which was moved out to our small garage to free up space in the den.
Time space is just as important as material space. If it takes up too much time, it takes up too much space in my day. As I look around me, I begin to think maybe I should get rid of our pillows. As much as they add to the décor, they are a time-consuming threat to my sanity, constantly having to be replaced when they get knocked askew, when the reason they are moved in the first place is merely because they are taking up precious sitting space. Who has time to replace pillows around here? I need a pillow-replacing fairy.
The other kind of space it’s important to free up or keep organized is mind space, the place we collect our thoughts, emotions, and information. As my friend Chris says, her e-mails tend to have lots of space in between thoughts because it’s reflective of how her thoughts are – spacey! Though it’s meant as a joke, there’s wisdom in creating space for our thinking. Adding space to our minds is a form of meditation. And meditating on the Lord and His Word can help us to open ourselves to His thoughts and viewpoints, what He might want to put in our “spaces” today.
Space is good. The older I get, the more I understand this. I just hope by the time we are old and gray that we have enough furniture left (safe from my ruthless removals) in our space to sit and talk with one another. Open, uncluttered, organized space should ultimately lend itself to togetherness, after all.
The older my kids get, the more things I have removed from our home, in hopes of creating more elbow room for them and for us. Their toys and bodies necessitate more areas to play in, and the older they grow, the more toys they acquire and the bigger their bodies become; therefore, we’ve lost a few pieces of furniture from some of our living spaces to accommodate this. They weren’t highly treasured pieces, mind you, or we would miss them. Some of the furniture that’s gone by the wayside – our huge couches, replaced with smaller, space friendly, easy-to-clean pieces; our sharp-cornered coffee table, a constant hazard to wobbly little footsteps; our kitchen sideboard, a great IKEA purchase, but a notorious junk collector; our birdcage (the poor lovebirds, who had a tendency to bite little fingers anyway, found a better home); and the large computer cabinet, which was moved out to our small garage to free up space in the den.
Time space is just as important as material space. If it takes up too much time, it takes up too much space in my day. As I look around me, I begin to think maybe I should get rid of our pillows. As much as they add to the décor, they are a time-consuming threat to my sanity, constantly having to be replaced when they get knocked askew, when the reason they are moved in the first place is merely because they are taking up precious sitting space. Who has time to replace pillows around here? I need a pillow-replacing fairy.
The other kind of space it’s important to free up or keep organized is mind space, the place we collect our thoughts, emotions, and information. As my friend Chris says, her e-mails tend to have lots of space in between thoughts because it’s reflective of how her thoughts are – spacey! Though it’s meant as a joke, there’s wisdom in creating space for our thinking. Adding space to our minds is a form of meditation. And meditating on the Lord and His Word can help us to open ourselves to His thoughts and viewpoints, what He might want to put in our “spaces” today.
Space is good. The older I get, the more I understand this. I just hope by the time we are old and gray that we have enough furniture left (safe from my ruthless removals) in our space to sit and talk with one another. Open, uncluttered, organized space should ultimately lend itself to togetherness, after all.
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