Alex and Nisha had invited some of their close friends for a party at home. They ensured that the house was neat and clean before the guests arrived. Every nook and corner of the house was made to look pretty for the party. Their friends arrived and the hosts were quite happy to get compliments about their beautiful house and how well maintained it is!
In between the party one of the guests wanted some ice cubes. Being quite close to the family he went directly to the kitchen to get it from the fridge. The moment he opened the fridge he almost let out a scream. The sight that welcomed him almost made him faint. The refrigerator had food stuff that was days or even weeks old and some of them even had developed fungus around it! The smell that came out of the fridge due to this stale food was unbearable too.
He spoke to Alex about this and they decided to clean up the fridge right away. They looked for a vessel to get the stuff out to trash it. The kitchen cupboards were opened to find a suitable vessel. That’s when the next shocker hit Alex’s friend. The cupboard was overflowing with a lot of stuff, many of them untouched for ages and had layers of dust gathered on it. There were old and useless utensils, broken house hold items and a whole lot of junk! Alex and Nisha started realizing the feeling of disgust their friends were experiencing in the otherwise ‘beautiful’ house of theirs.
Alex was asked to get some old clothes to clear out the junk and they opened the bedroom wardrobe for that. That’s when all hell broke loose! The moment the wardrobe doors were opened there was a mad rush of over stacked clothes and other covers as they started falling out freely! The wardrobe was an ultimate disaster where clothes both new and old were all scrambled up and jam-packed. The party was soon over! While the friends were leaving they made one remark that pushed the hosts to a deep thought. They said, “You appear to live in a palace, but it is in fact a palace of junk!”
It is worthwhile to think how many of us may have had similar experiences. How many of our homes are actually ‘palaces of junk’? It is not just enough to think about our physical houses when we talk about this. It is equally or even more important to look at our lives as well. Take a step back and look at our life. Do you see yourself carrying forward many of the stale and filthy experiences from the past? Are you still carrying a baggage of hatred or distrust about someone from your past? Do you still have that hostility in your mind about that one friend of yours who double crossed you and you’ll never be able to forgive him or her?
All these and many more are the junk you carry in your mind and that directly impacts your life. Your physical wellbeing is largely dependent on your mental health. Carrying these grudges from the past or having a wardrobe of negative thoughts in your mind does a lot of damage to your personality.
I really liked one of the forwards shared by a friend of mine recently. It says, “You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk”. This sort of summarizes the thought. Learn to free up your mind off the junk from the past. Create palaces with radiating beauty by getting rid of the thoughts that pull you down. Make it a habit to do a regular clearance of both your home as well as your mind and that’s when you truly live in a palace!
May you have the ability to find and clear the junk in your life so as to embrace the radiating peace of mind!
God bless!
