Clutter and Change
There is a Buddhist parable (which I can’t find right now) about a man who wants a larger house. He goes to his mentor and asks him what he should do. The mentor says, “bring five goats into your house”. The man is confused but follows the directions. He says to the mentor, “now my house seems even smaller!” The mentor tells him to bring five more goats into his house. Now the man’s house is bursting at the seams with animals, so there is hardly any room. He returns to his mentor who tells him “now take all the animals out of your house.”
The man is amazed at how large his house was, though nothing had actually changed. He had simply stopped taking the space for granted.
I thought of this because today we finally took down our Christmas tree and decorations, leaving what seemed like a gaping hole in the living room, and a lot of empty space around the house. It reminded me of how much we so easily take for granted, even something as simple as an object filling a space, and how strange it seems when it’s gone. We get so used to our own clutter that we start to have a hard time even noticing it.
When we don’t facilitate change, we have a hard time staying aware.
Note to self: rearrange furniture often so I don’t stagnate.
