Several weeks ago I began an earnest attempt to “declutter” my space. It is really an ongoing effort. I culled my library of books. I brought to the thrift store a CD/tape player that my mother had given me at least 35 years ago. I gave my 12-string guitar to my godson (well, on ‘permanent loan’ let’s say!)—it deserved to be played more often. I scoured my office, amassing four bags of shredded paper, and every day for a week, I managed to find another piece of clothing or two I didn’t really need.

And that’s the struggle isn’t it? Need versus want? Even as a religious, I am such a daughter of my culture—colonial, imperialist, capitalist—culture, with its amazing gifts and underlying greed. In his latest book The Myth of Normal, medical doctor and author Gabor Maté calls this craving for what I don’t really need “consumption hunger.” He writes,

“Among the great achievements of mass-consumption culture has been to convince us that what we have been conditioned to fervently want is also what we need.” ¹

He goes on to share this steely insight written by Thomas Merton in 1948:

“We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.” (The Seven Story Mountain p.148)²

Geesh! A little harsh, Thomas? But alas, quite true?

So, back to decluttering. Guilt has never been a motivator for me; it gets my engines going for about three weeks before the effort sputters to a halt and then dies a rather insipid death! Blah! So I thought I would try something different this time. I prayed. How novel is that? Yes, I asked for the grace of my vow of poverty to give me courage and freedom to let go; to loosen attachments, conscious and unconscious. It was a short prayer but sincere. Thomas Merton was known to say that a little sincerity goes a long way with God. I hoped that this was true. Now as I write this, I feel myself tearing up; clearly there is something more going on here for me.

I have much to declutter in my life… useless thoughts, unhelpful attitudes, long-held privileges, fears, false beliefs, many “things,” both inner and outer. I am quite aware that the consumption hunger and the need for control imbued in our culture, and therefore in me, causes great suffering in our human and more-than-human world. Consumerism, like other addictions, mutes our pain by acting as a distraction; it blinds us and binds us. In this there is no true freedom to be had and no true justice can be found. O, this Holy Decluttering—such a lifelong journey!