The Junk In My Life

Is plentiful. Or so I think. Until I hear about the junk in other people's lives. Then mine doesn't seem quite so much. Perhaps my biggest problem is not putting the junk in my life in perspective.

I heard that Carol Burnett won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Well deserved. There's a lady who has kept the humor in spite of the junk in her life. I try to keep the humor amidst the junk as well. Some days it works quite well. Other days...not so much. But I'm getting there.

The thing that helps me most of the time on the days I'm having trouble keeping the humor is putting my junk in perspective. That pretty much wakes me up with the realization that my junk is, in part, my own doing. The parts that aren't my own doing? Well, I should just turn my back on it and be done. Once and for all. Easier said than done.

I've got physical junk all over the place. Not even 50% of it is mine. I would give just about anything to run out when the sanitation guys are rolling down the road and tell them that they can have any and all of the junk in the side and back yards if they just haul it all off. And then, I'd even let them in the house to take some of the junk inside. Nice to dream about it anyway. I've also got physical junk in the form of fat. I'd like to offer all that to the sanitation guys as well.

I've got emotional junk. But I'm getting really good at dealing with that by purging those who cause the turmoil. I remind myself that if they can cause all this emotional junk, it's only because I'm giving them permission to do so. I'm handing over control of ME to THEM. That's not going to work. And I'm putting a stop to it.

I've got mental junk. There are so many thoughts that run through my head on a daily basis that there is no such thing as a number big enough to put on them. It's CRAZY. They run around and around in a whirlwind until I catch one that I think I can handle at that moment. It's really nuts when I wake up in the middle of the night and don't get right back to sleep. If I awake after a sleep cycle, those thoughts are like Black Friday shoppers. They burst through the doors at warp speed and scramble here and there in that whirlwind form. I haven't been able to get this under control. I just don't think it's possible. Not even deep breathing and stretching exercises slow them down.

I've got technology junk. This junk is in the form of bookmarked sites that I never go back and visit and emails that I think I need to keep so I don't delete them. But all of it needs to go.

I've got past junk. I got rid of most of this junk. But I can't seem to get rid of all of it. I hear we should live in the present and let the past go. It's not like we can go back and have a redo or take a different path or make a better decision. But that stuff is NOT easy to let go. It's haunting.

There is all kinds of junk we have to live with day in and day out. I'm beginning to realize that even ridding ourselves of the junk is a process that takes time. And energy. I also realize that, without humor, the junk would overtake us every second of every day.

If we didn't laugh we might cry. I'd rather laugh. How about y'all?