Tag: grace

Goodbye Lent, Hello next steps

Donna Joy

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, the final day in my Lenten commitment to decluttering my house. 

I looked back today and reread what I had written on Ash Wednesday, over 6 weeks ago, at the beginning of my decision to blog through my process of decluttering my home and my faith in an effort to uncover real:

“When I turned the calendar this week and saw Ash Wednesday, I was filled with longing for the night I spent bearing those ashes. More than just a night in a sanctuary, I am longing for the “real” that the Pastor spoke of. I am tired of façades, tired of being burned by hypocrisy (my own and others), and I’m craving real. Maybe you are, too.

In one of my first experiences with Lent, I accepted a challenge to only eat unprocessed foods for a Lenten fast. I hated it. Every part of it. At the end, I excitedly went for some random junk food I’d been looking forward to, and it tasted like crap. I had developed a taste for real and now nothing else would satisfy.

Many of us are not attending in-person services this year, whether due to COVID-related issues, disenchantment with the church, a faith deconstruction process, or any number of other reasons. Despite all my issues with attending, not attending has left a void. 

I’m craving real. Real relationships, real faith, real hope, real joy, real me. Like the fast I did several years ago, I want to take a hard look at my life and address where I have been exchanging real for counterfeits, cheap replacements, and fakes.”

As I look back over these past couple months, I can see and feel so many benefits from the steps I’ve taken so far and I am so grateful for the conversations they’ve sparked with others along the way.

I love how my home feels when it greets me every day. I love the peace it gives to my family.

I love the conversations I’ve had with others on worth, value, dignity, priorities, self-evaluation, shame, truth and grace. 

I am excited to keep taking steps towards real in my relationships, my body, my faith, my hope, my joy, and all of my life.

Thank you for your encouragement and challenge along the way, let’s keep going together!

Image contents: My cup, overflowing with joy. Ok, so it’s actually a mug with the word “joy” imprinted on the side, which I filled a touch too fully with coffee, so the foam is peeking over the brim, but to me, it’s a cup overflowing with joy, as I look forward to continuing to experience and write through my journey to uncover real.

Week 6, Day 3: Onions, Old Habits and Grace

Donna Joy

Even though minimalism experts like Joshua Fields Millburn  and Joshua Becker talk about their  decluttering process taking about three-quarters of a year, and other experts describe decades-long journeys, I figured six weeks should be enough time to get my house to clutter-free-a-place-for-everything-and-everything-in-its-place status. I mean, I’m not a hoarder. I don’t have a storage unit. My basement is a disaster, but I can park in the garage. Usually.

When I started, I felt I landed pretty squarely in the “normal” range of clutter, on the scale I made up. In my head. Based basically on my house not looking like either an episode of Hoarders or a minimalist magazine cover. 

So today, six weeks into my decluttering journey, when I went to put a few things away and realized they didn’t have an easy permanent home, I was frustrated at myself. And when I gathered up a few things in a tote to “deal with tomorrow,” I felt guilty and ashamed. Hadn’t I just learned the lesson of “do it now” yesterday?

When am I going to reach the point of everything having a home and automatically putting it there?

Then I remembered two things. First, the “onion method.” Different people have different versions of what this means, but the concept always revolves around layers. Sometimes the layering is in a single decluttering session – like yesterday when Dana K. White’s method started with trash and the easy peasy stuff, then kept going through harder items.

Sometimes uncovering the layers happens over time.

A month ago,  I decluttered my reusable grocery bags. Today I went grocery shopping and realized, since I’m not stocking up on grocery items as heavily, I’m shopping for less, and therefore don’t need as many bags as I had narrowed it down to a few weeks ago.

I started with what I thought I needed, then was able to peel back more. 

The same thing is happening in the rest of my home. As I enjoy the benefits, see how I’m actually living, and build up my decision-making muscles, I’m often decluttering things as I come across them, and sometimes intentionally going back to spaces I know can function better with less. 

I also realized everything not yet having a place for everything and putting a few things in a tote for tomorrow is not failure. There’s grace in the process. After all, I have a whole other week before my self-imposed deadline. 😉

Image Contents: an image of Shrek saying, “Onions have layers, Ogres have layers. You get it? We both have layers!” Because I can’t talk about onions having layers with Shrek and Donkey busting into my head.