I’ve loved rearranging furniture since I was a kid. I would disappear into my room for the time it took to complete the process, usually most of a day. I’d push the bed against a different wall, swap the desk and the book shelf, roll up the rug and unroll it again. Coming through the chaos—furniture piling up, posters and books littering the floor, and dolls and stuffed animals everywhere—to the resulting altered arrangement tended to a restlessness in me. I relished the refresh, it brought peace.
Still does. I move the furniture, and the stuff on the walls, frequently. I get rid of stuff. It’s a practice of shifting energy, against stagnation.
I wonder if (hope that) this rearranging is rehearsal for the urgent spiritual, cultural and ecological renovation we are all faced with now.
With our participation, love rearranges us. Take that off the wall. Bring that shit out to the curb. The dresser can’t be over there anymore because it’s blocking the window. You’re blocking your light.
Me too. Love this and love you. The compassionate me thinks that so many of our peers are afraid to rearrange the room. They fear that they will expend the energy or not know the best way to go about it, and they won’t like the result anyway. So they do nothing. But as you say, Dear Friend, taking inventory, culling, rearranging, is a practice, an ongoing process we live. We are so stuck in habits of mind that say: reality is this, I do that, and this will happen, and it will be good, or it will be bad. But sit by a stream. Watch the sky. The world doesn’t work that way, so why should we? Thank you, Kendall, for this inspiration this morning.
"With our participation, love rearranges us." So beautiful!