Thursday, the 13th of June 2024: “The Weight of Possessions: Finding Balance in a Cluttered Life”!!!
Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 29 degrees, hot, Sunny and beautiful blue skies; a beautiful day.
Now that I am back in Brazil and settling into a routine, I know that, having been away for about seven months, both Nalva and Yasmin would have relaxed a bit in keeping the flat clean, tidy, and clutter-free.
It appears to be part of human nature to collect and, in extreme cases, hoard. This explains why homeless people often carry bags filled with belongings yet have nowhere to store them. Even when moving from one place to another, they carry large bags of possessions, which seems illogical if they have nowhere to keep them.
Our minds are projected onto the environment we live in; in other words, where and how we live reflects our mind, its condition, and its health.
My mother’s house in England is full of small ornaments, a multitude of items kept for emergencies that probably will never happen. What also impressed me most were the artefacts, ornaments, and belongings from when my brothers and I were children, over 40 or 50 years ago.
It is natural to keep some extraordinary items that hold sentimental and special value as references, but not in excess, to avoid the impression that my mother is living in the past, almost obsessively, and needs to be comforted with these artefacts. That is all; these references help her feel good about herself and her life.
Her house was filled with various dolls made of plastic, porcelain, and cloth, and on occasion, she would speak to them, as if expecting a response. In the bathroom, where everything was cluttered, including the central shelf in front of the mirror above the wash basin, it was always difficult to remove something from the shelf without something falling.
I have a thing about things falling. I hate it when something drops on the floor; I have only recently consciously realised how much I dislike it. When I had the school, a group of female pupils knew how much I disliked it when things accidentally dropped during a lesson, and sometimes they would try to provoke me by pretending or threatening to drop something as a joke or to test my nerves.
This constant of stuff always falling on the floor is very relevant to Nalva, I say jokingly but with a high degree of truth, that in her house, everything drops onto the floor, and nothing closes properly.
How crazy is that?
Last night, I opened the fridge, and a plastic mayonnaise bottle fell to the floor. Some of the wardrobe doors do not close either because there are too many clothes packed inside them. The frames are twisted out of alignment because of too much stuff, most of which they do not need, rarely use, or wear; only a small part is actually used daily.
I have never been wealthy, so I have never really had the financial means to buy things excessively, but even so, especially in the last couple of years, I have learned to appreciate and understand the importance of a clean, tidy home with just enough for my comfort and a good quality of life. We do not need much to be happy, just enough to maintain the quality and comfort we believe we deserve.
I also think that quantity has a lot to do with affecting quality. If we have a lot of something or something similar, the quality goes down, whereas if we have very little of something, the quality and its importance remain high.
Like a man who owns a single perfect car or watch and uses it regularly, these possessions are of great importance to him, so their quality is high. However, if a man is a collector of cars or watches and possesses a large number of both, even though the entire collection has significant monetary value, the true sentimental worth becomes spread across many, and none is so exceptionally special or could be, resulting in a feeling of devaluation because of the others.
Life is good, but it is challenging and fluid; because of that, we cannot be weighed down like pack horses—heavy and slow, since sudden changes in our lives demand agility, and being less burdened helps us react or act swiftly.
It is also once again a matter of importance, how we live and what we genuinely need, and nothing else!
Just a typical day with a lot of classes, et cetera and housework.
In bed by 10:00 p.m.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
