Might be useful one day?

I was round at my Mum's today.
She lives nearby and her garage needs cleared out.

Most of the stuff in it had been collected over the years by my Dad.
It was full of things that 'might be useful one day'!
But after his death earlier this year their day of potential usefulness was over.

So today was the start of the chucking-out process.
There were shelves and other bits of wood.
There were various bits of metal - all kinds of gadgets.
There were even some chairs.
But the garage has been a bit damp, and corrosion and mould had been busy taking the shine off much of the stuff.

Mum and I were rather ruthless.
Which is funny, because Mum's name is Ruth!
But ruthlessly we chucked the stuff in the bin, or the recycling.

When we had finished for the day the garage had some real space in it! And now that space is going to be more useful than all the potentially useful clutter that Dad had built up over the years.

It's amazing how our lives get all cluttered up with rubbish.
I was out on my bike earlier - pedalling happily along.
And then I came to the cycle path entrance where I fell off in February.
It was a rather painful experience at the time, but no harm was done.

But I could tell that my animal body remembered the experience too.
My adrenaline level was up, tension was increased.
Something bad had happened here before, so be very careful indeed!

Well there was no problem really.
I had cycled that way many times before.
It was just as easy this time as all but one of the previous times.
But there was no way my mind could convince my body to calm down until after we were passed the accident point. Once I was passed then it was OK to relax again.

I think our memories, both conscious and subconscious, often make us wary of potential hazards far more than the actual risk of the hazard. As a result we worry more than we should and miss out on much that life has to offer us.

My friend Steve Martin is a Risk Consultant and has a lot to say on our perceptions of risk compared with the real probability of the hazard. Check out his Cool Risk website.

A long time ago someone offered us 'peace beyond our understanding'.
Don't miss out on the peace due to bad memories.
Give your memory a clear-out and get rid of the rubbish.