Dear Friends,

Today my morning musing has to deal with living in the past.

What are we doing to our families because we can’t let go of the past! You know exactly what I am talking about. I had to get tough with a dear friend this morning over this same problem. So I figured if she was struggling with this issue that there were hundreds of you that were hurting too.

Here is the situation. My friend’s 8 year old daughter wants to have her birthday party this year at home and not at McDonalds. She comes to you can says. “Mommy I am the only girl in my class that has not had a sleep over at my house”. This child’s birthday is in 5 months. I guess she figures that if she asks now, that her mom will be able to accomplish this by then.

This puts a huge guilt trip on this mother; the living room, family room, dining room, kitchen are all in major hot spot infernos. So when I asked her what was in these hot spots: she said that she had been going through the baby things. Now listen closely; the baby is 8 years old. So what do you think is going on here?

I feel that she can’t let go of the past because she is feeling sorry for herself that her children are growing up! “This is my baby”, she said to me. Well what are they supposed to do! Die in infancy! No children grow into adults and we have to let them go! This means their baby stuff and toys too.  As a result of not wanting to let go of the so-called sentimental items, she is sacrificing her child to the Gods of the past and not allowing her to grow up in the here and now and enjoy her childhood.

Do you see how sad this is for the whole family? The clutter of the past is alienating them from the world.  And I have not even addressed the problems it is causing in this marriage.

Then we have the whole perfectionism attitude that is keeping her from spending a few minutes here and there to declutter. The excuse was she doesn’t have time! I asked if she had five minutes. She had been taught her whole life, “If you don’t do it right then don’t do it at all!” her words were, “I don’t have time to do it all!” This is the main problem with every one of us.

We think we have to do it all, to do it RIGHT! This is a bold face lie!!!

How long are you going to let clutter steal your life, your love, and your sanity? It is time to let go and FLY!! Are you with me on this? In the next few weeks we are going to be hitting you very hard on these attitudes that have kept us captive by our clutter.

I want for you what I have! Peace and this peace came from letting go of ties that bind me to my clutter! Cut them and find yourself FLYing!

I know this is hard! But if I can do this, any of you can too!

FlyLady

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