clutter

i put away the laundry today!
it's something i try to procrastinate as much as possible, but there is a limit even to my delays: when the guest bedroom turns into a linen closet, i know i've waited way too long.
then i tried fitting in all my running t shirts and pajama bottoms in the little drawer in my dresser.

it was a clutter of confusion.

but i pushed shirts down, and stuffed them in, and before i knew it, i was able to slam the drawer shut. barely. God help the one who will attempt to open the drawer!

you know what i'm talking about. little trinkets with nowhere to go, so they end up in another storage box, piled up on another stack of books, or another slew of old CDs no one listens to anymore.

today i was thinking i hadn't blogged in a while. but it's not because i haven't had much to say, on the contrary, i've had too many thoughts swirling around my 2 ounce brain and the clutter in my mind is looking a lot like my dresser drawer.

what do you do, when this happens? when thoughts become so rushed, and it's hard to figure out something's head from its tail?

of course you can throw out all the t shirts and pajama bottoms, or buy another dresser. but i think there is really only one thing to do in these moments of clutter. one thing that gives a measure of reason and a drop of hope.

it's simple, really. when my mind is full of clutter, i turn off the radio. mute the TV. hang up the phone. shut down the computer.

and i choose to be still.

i then experience an unfamiliar and sometimes scary sensation.
some have referred to it as "silence".

but it is in this stillness that God brings order out of my confusion, neatness out of my clutter.

and another blog posted for anyone who cares to read it.