How Can You Find Peace in Your Circumstances?

Ready for a garage sale

Someone once noted that during the first 50 years of our life we go about acquiring things and the last 50 years of our life we will go about getting rid of our things! Hence the importance of neighborhood garage sales. And who doesn’t like garage sales whether we are getting rid of our own “stuff” or they are someone else’s things? It’s kind of funny but probably has much truth in it too.

Many single-again women have already gone through (or will eventually go through) a type of “environmental cleansing” simply because of current circumstances. Maybe it was due to a move to a new house, renting out a room in the present house, or finally getting around to discarding all the hoarding trash that has collected over the years in every room of the house. It may not have been something we desired to do at the time, but still, we were compelled to face the idea of de-cluttering vs. getting buried in things and possessions that only reminded us of a life we were trying to let go of.       

Talk About Dizziness!

Depending on how long it has been since our marital status moved to a different column on our tax forms (divorced, widowed, or single mom), it has changed us both on the inside as well as the outside. We are not the same woman we once were whether we recognize it or not. And that may be the precise key to some strange feelings of woe—sadness, heartbreak, worry, and gloom--we get now and then. We just are not the same and we are having trouble admitting that fact. We have shifted 180 degrees, but our heads are lagging. Talk about dizziness!   

It’s possible we may be trying to fight what’s going on inside instead of “going with the flow” and finding peace. Our life has changed and wants to get on with the business of living while we are stuck in “quicksand.” Life itself is still moving faster than ever and, true, time is not going to wait for us. It’s a matter of trying to discover who we are and what we really want now.                    

If that familiar “Aha” moment is knocking at the door right now, that’s a great sign. Deep inside we all wish for the very best to happen now that we are on our own. Of course, it will be different for each one of us. For some, their top priority may be a much-needed vacation. New clothes for our kids going back to school. A new house in a new neighborhood, maybe even a new state. Education. A new business we've always wanted to open. These are all important for sure and we do need many of them. But we must understand most are not permanent. So enjoy anything good that comes along, but don't count them as a forever thing.        

Aaah! Peaceful

Finding the Recipe for Peace

Just like all that clutter we want to get rid of in our next garage sale, we will be more content and peaceful if we continue the process of cleaning out the junk both in our homes and in our minds. Figure out what is really important to keep and dump the rest. Hint: if we keep looking for empty boxes to store it all away, we don’t need it! [Okay, maybe the annual holiday decorations can stay]. We can only use so much “stuff” in our lives, so keep sorting and dumping until a new feeling of happiness invades our very existence! Strive for less chaos and disarray (some call this minimalism) to make room for peace, joy, and pure contentment. These are the things that will last forever and we can't have too much of them!        

In the Bible, Apostle Paul said, “I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One [God] who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:12-13 MSG).