M: This Lenten season is always a good time to reflect. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me” is one of my favorite Bible passages. Sometimes, we are too busy and we forget to take stock of how we are doing and how we really are. If businesses have regular inventories, how much more for our lives—to check how we are, how we see ourselves. And if we are honest enough to see what needs cleansing, freeing or un-cluttering in our lives, we can better assess our priorities, our needs and our wants.
DJ: Having a personal cleanup gives us also more room for new beginnings. Part of it is letting go of what can’t be to make way for what can be. Of course, it’s nice to persevere, to hold on, to keep on keeping on. That’s what love is about. But there’s got to be a point when loving means to let go of control, to allow others to face their own reality and to make their own destinies. Even if doing all that can mean we’re no longer part of them. Sometimes, it’s when we allow others to live their own lives when we also begin to live our own.
M: One thing to ask ourselves from time to time is if we are doing what we need to do. Do you find yourself spreading yourself too thin that you seem to do everything but actually accomplish very little? Or do you find yourself anxious about your circumstances, present, past and future? Worry takes away our happiness and peace of mind. Dwell in the here and now, savor the moment and appreciate the present for the gift that it is.
DJ: Life has a way of freeing us from burdens. It’s ironic but sometimes, as Thomas Edison once said: “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes were burned up. Now we can start anew.” We have many examples of people who have succeeded after going through an adversity which they thought they could not overcome. In our lives, many times we experience a loss—a relationship, a job opportunity—but which eventually turned out to be better or a blessing in disguise. That’s why part of having a clean heart and mind is learning how and when to let go.
M: Just like losing weight, it feels good to let go of stuff we don’t need or use so we can free our closet, clean the space and use it for storing the more important things that we actually use or can still use. Same with our hearts and our minds. After getting rid of clutter, we see good order in our lives. When we unload something, we lose yet we also gain.
DJ: Let’s strive to cut away the noise, even for a few minutes, for us to have room to think more clearly. After spending much time thinking about having the courage to change something or someone, find time to think about how to have the serenity to accept the things or people we cannot change.