Shedding – Sunday, July 26, 1981
Wherever did modern man get the idea that more was better? Unhappy is the corporate executive who cannot report that his company grew bigger during the year. Chambers of commerce urge their towns to constant growth. And individually, we hurry to acquire more and more possessions, to cram more and more into each day until our lives become like stuffed suitcases that cannot close and bulge and break with their load.
Well, in every life there is much to do, a thousand fronts to respond to, distractions like mosquitoes that nip at us from every side. There are, after all, responsibilities at work, bills to pay, a household gadget to fix, the telephone to answer, the child’s problem to solve, the appointment to keep, the meeting to attend. Too many voices at once to answer. And we are supposed to perform them all skillfully like a practiced juggler. But even if we seem to do well at our myriad demands, they take their toll upon our inner lives.
We are fragmented, pulled apart, each demand having a little piece of us until there is no still point in our turning world. We lose our central core, our inner harmony, feeling only like a mass of functions hurriedly performed.
If we are to ever again be whole, we must follow the advice of the wisemen through all the ages of time, and that is not to seek more in our lives, but less. Not to add and add, but to simplify. We lose touch with the springs that nourish us when we are encumbered with too many distractions, too many possessions. Simplify. Shed the impediments which cloud our vision.
At first, that may sound impossible. We cannot shed our jobs, subtract a child from our family; but there are things, less important things, we can shed. We can shed our false pride that leads us to own more than we need, perhaps only to impress others. We can shed our performance in certain capacities that mean nothing to us. We can shed meaningless regret for past failures over which we no longer have control and longer matter. We can shed guilt over the unfinished task. We can shed anxiety for tomorrow’s responsibility. Tomorrow is not yet upon us. We can shed physical possessions which break and need maintenance and do not add as much as they take from us. We can shed activities which do not enrich us, but merely numb our senses.
Despite its marvelous public relations campaign, more is not better. A full life is often a simple one, where there is room for purity of intention, singleness of purpose and a settled heart.
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July 26, 1981
Broadcast Number 2,710