Gift of Clearing

 This morning I was thinking about gifts associated with clearing.  My friend told me about her experience of using her spiritual gifts to clear a Provo building of about 100 cluttered spirits in the attic and help them pass through portals to another world.  She reported how the process took her about 45 minutes and had been a significant spiritual experience for those involved. 

 I was extremely familiar with the recently cleared Gothic building space since I worked there for over a year.  I sure could have used the help of those "100 spirits" as I spent literally weeks organizing 20 years of costumes from that same attic area. I did feel the spirits of all those staff and students who spent so much time and energy bringing the theatrical programs to life.  It was a journey through time but I was never scared or creeped out.  Maybe I should have been, considering there were reports of ghosts in the building but I always felt safe and peaceful.  Besides I was preoccupied with creating order out of chaos.  That's one of my gifts.    

I've utilized the gift several times during the last decades. I did it when my father passed away with his man cave.  I did it with my husband's never-ending parade of possessions during our marriage.  I did it with my uncle's house.  I did it with the basement for a guy I barely knew.  I did it for my daughter from her old house to her new house.  I did it for the art rooms, gym closets, therapy spaces at different facilities.   I did every time I moved from one space to the next. I did it last Sunday at my son's house for his new baby.   It seems like I'm always doing it because, like spirits that keep popping up in various spaces, entropy abounds.  Since we live in a world of tangible things, there are abundant opportunities to clear the way.  Let's have some order here!

But just because I'm good at it, doesn't mean I like it.  I would NEVER do it as a side-gig.  It takes so much out of me!  Though there is some satisfaction in the temporary order, it is mostly an expression of love and appreciation.  Maybe I'm a bit like the spiritualist who told me how much love and peace she felt as she was doing her energy work.  

So how is it done?  It was interesting to learn about some of her spiritual process as she works with the intangible world but I will leave that to her to write about it.  In my work with the tangible world,  I come into a space that is complete chaos. It is completely overwhelming that most people leave it alone, don't approach it or simply learn to live with it. But not for me the clutter whisperer!  Though things are not dead people, each item is certainly connected with life or lives of people who have used the object for some purpose.  Some purposes are easier to guess than others. I throw very little out.  It has to be legit trash. Everything is done with utmost respect for the people involved and their "dead things."

In the case with the haunted costume attic, I can't see dead people, but I can see how some things are alike and how they are different.  Though I'm not coaching ghosts through portals, I can make some type of container for these like items- bags, boxes, closet space, or spots on the floor.   Then I see a vision of how they can be arranged or given a semi-permanent resting place. 

The whole process makes me appreciate each item in guessing what the item was used for, and what it could be used for in the future.  In this case, it was for future use in treatment groups.  The goal is utilize the resources we already have and organize them in a way for quick and efficient retrieval.    With these thoughts in mind, it come down to picking up one item at a time and putting it where it belongs.  Little by little, the pile grows smaller.  The large trash bags that have been sitting there for years, are opened and sorted until there are none and all is put away.  

I remembered the pride I felt about the costume attic when it was put in order.  I even found old pictures of the past theatrical productions and placed them around the room to breathe a little life into the place, though I guess THAT wasn't needed.  

I go tomorrow to pick up a few costume items from the newly "cleared" attic for my program in Millcreek for our celebration of the '80s, '90s, and '00s.  Ironically it is called "Spirit Week."  I have never really considered my abilities surrounding organization as a spiritual gift, but I guess it is.  It's a different kind of clearing.  I clear the way for new possibilities, help people with their stuff and benefit in the process.