“Mom, that is all lies. You just put everything back in the house. You are a terrible person. Mom, you have to tell the truth. You can’t tell people how you finally cleaned out your garage. Write it right now. Tell the truth.”
My daughter Piper insisted I tell you the whole story. And here it is.
Yesterday I wrote about how I cleaned out my garage. I didn’t lie to you. But, I didn’t tell you the whole story.
I did take three bags of clothes, three vacuum cleaners, a garden rake, a scanner,a backpack, and a picture frame I won when I came in third place at the dog look-alike contest at The Boyertown Dog Days swim party, to the thrift store. Here is a picture to prove it.
Truth: I cleaned out the garage.
Truth: We parked our vehicles in the garage on Saturday as Winter Storm Electra showered rain and ice down on our driveway.
False: I didn’t take everything that was in the garage to the thrift store.
In the living room are four boxes of books I still have to sort through, and the Lane Cedar chest my youngest daughter and I found in front of our neighbors house on garbage da,y is in the dining room. We still have to carry it upstairs to her room. The cymbals to the drum that were in the garage I put in the basement with the rest of the drum set.
Every day I get rid of a few more boxes, and everyday I try to let go of the past and focus on today.
Do you try to pretend you have your life all together? but really you are a mess behind the mask?
I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.
― S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
I lie to myself. You will never be able to clean out your basement. Just do it tomorrow. Take another nap, have a bath.
Truth: I want to be honest with you.
Truth: I want to be honest with myself.
Truth: Letting go of the past is hard. Making up my mind about getting rid of old VHS tapes is hard.
Truth: It was very hard to take the old vacuum cleaners to the thrift store.
Truth: God will help me when I don’t have the strength to do it in on my own. He will even help me get rid of old vacuums.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13 NKJV
I am sorry if I made it look like I did more than I really did yesterday.
Today I will take a bath and maybe I will take a nap, but I will also pack up some old VHS tapes and take them to the thrift store.
Do you have a hard time cleaning out clutter? Are you emotionally tied to your possessions? Please tell me in the comments. I really want to know.
p.s. I just went upstairs and asked my teenage daughter, “Does this sound okay? My teenage daughter called me a terrible person. No, it should say, My teenage daughter called me a liar. And she was right.”
p.s.s I have the commenting system Disqus. Here is an on-line tutorial about how to register for Disqus, if you are having trouble registering. Registering a Commenter Account.
