The Universe Has A Sense Of Humor!

Dear One,

No de-clutter needed! The universe has a sense of humor!

“Can I sit down next to you in the sun?” a gentleman with salt-pepper colored hair and beard asked this Saturday. I sat outside Mugshots, a cute little coffeehouse in Middletown, sipping an extra hot Matcha Latte.

This was my first time to spend the morning in town since I moved to the country-side in 2010. We started talking about this, that and the other. Turned out that his house also burned in the Valley Fire in 2015.

“You know,” he said at one point, “it was a real blessing that I did not have to sort through my messy garage. That was taken care of. Quickly. It saved me a lot of work and headache. I had all this stuff from my deceased mother, bless her soul. How in the world would you decide what to let go of stuff from your mom? ”

We laughed. And I realized, the same happened to me.  3 Days before the Valley fire in 2015 I drove up from Marin and wanted to stop at Cosco to get 10 Plastic Container sets which come in a bundle of three.

Recently I had felt the urge to organize my garage again. Somehow – although I had not bought a lot of new things, the garage felt like a storage full with stuff. Too much stuff. Stuff that had emotional baggage and did not exactly make my life ‘light’.  I had spent 3 months in LA to de-clutter my home and life of 22 years before I moved to the country-side. There I was again ~ with too much clutter.

I did not stop at Cosco, not the one in Novato nor Santa Rosa, there was way too much traffic already, I was running late and my cat whined all the way home.

It saved me close to $200! As 3 days later the raging fire took care of my de-clutter and letting go project.

Do I still mourn? Of course I do – especially all the photos and photo albums, books, art, business memorabilia.

And in this moment sitting with my new friend, I had to laugh. It has always been hard for me to know what to let go and what to keep. Instead of organizing I would stop and read letters and then time-travel and 4 hours later, nothing had happened.

The Gift:

Gifts often come in unexpected ways and packages. This one took me and many other people by complete surprise. Even though the fire was a huge loss, I had a sweet moment of relief. Like a cosmic comedy or farce, it connected me to the humor in all of this tragedy.

Where can you find the humor in your crisis, letting go or loss? Did this blog help to connect you back to a smile, maybe grin or even laughter? Where do you get attached to things? Can you let go easily? I would love to read your thoughts about this?

Please share your comments below!

Sending tons of laughter, Joya

© Text by Joya P. Gallasch/The Gifts of Change