Cleaning out the junk

It was heavy trash pick up today.  The sidewalks along my block were crowded with piles of discarded stuff.  All kinds of stuff.  Strangers to the neighborhood were cruising by with their pick ups ready to snatch up the discarded stuff.  You know, one person's trash is another person's treasure.

I almost missed heavy trash pick up because I had to be at work early and I knew I would have to get rid of the junk after my husband was gone.  You see, he didn't see the junk that filled the garage.  I did.  So, with a gleeful grin I rushed home for lunch and went straight to the overstuffed garage.  My time was limited.  I could hear the rumble of the garbage truck on the next block.  I loaded up and made several trips out to the curb.  In five short minutes I had amassed quite a collection.  I was pleased.  I was even more pleased when I looked out at the street a few minutes later and the pile had vanished.  How simple was that!

We deal with a lot of stuff in the course of a day--some of it's junk, some of it's treasure.  The trick is knowing how to eliminate (or best deal with) the junk and how to make the most of the treasure.  How nice it would be if we could just pile up all the stuff that bogged us down and have some magic truck pick it up and haul it away.  How much more we would get out of life if we could toss out the stuff that really wasn't important so that we could focus on the stuff that really mattered.

My "magic truck" is often a workout.  More times than I can count I have felt overburdened and overwhelmed, like the load I was hauling was almost more than I could bear. Often, all it took was a chance to exercise, to move around, work up a sweat, feel my muscles challenged, and the load lightened.  I'm not saying that all my problems were no more, but I felt much more confident that I could deal with them.  I was able to focus on the treasures more and not worry quite so much about the tough stuff.

Over the years exercise has been a real help in dealing with life's less than pleasant aspects, and the best part is I don't have to wait for heavy trash pick up day!