Uncategorized

Comparison is the thief of joy.

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ 1 Comment

Inspiring+quotes+that+sparkle+on+Showerbelle

I don’t know what kind of day Theodore Roosevelt was having when he said this, or who he might have been suffering in comparison to (who do you compare yourself to when you’re a president!), but he was bang on the money.

Eventually, after many years of allowing Jesus to gently show me how he sees me, I don’t cripple myself with comparison too often.

But the devil is a cunning character and he’ll keep his eye on your Achilles heel waiting for the moment you’ve left it undefended too long, then in he’ll sneak with his whispering lies and distortion.

Last weekend, while attending an event with my work, I came into contact with a couple of my peers who I immediately placed myself in comparison with. They were considerably bigger players in this weird Christian world that we swim in, and so the enemy came nipping at my heels with his snide accusations.

“What have you done in comparison to her? Look at what she’s achieved. You’re still coming in second best, as always.”

Even though I now recognise these lies for what they are, in a weak moment they can still take the legs out from underneath me. I spent the morning feeling insecure and uncertain of myself, and generally pretty rubbish.

Thank goodness for Jesus.

Once again he came and lifted my eyes, reminded me of who I am in him, and revealed to me afresh the things in my past that the enemy has taken and bent out of shape, until they resemble something they never really were. It takes my Saviour to sweep away the cobwebs and dirt that have gathered after years of falsehoods, to reveal the beauty and truth that lies beneath and to restore my sense of who I am.

Once I am back in the arms of Jesus, comparison is set aside and joy returns. I can worship because I am unique, fearfully and wonderfully made, just like my peers standing before me. I can rejoice once more in them and in the amazing ways in which God is using them for his Kingdom purposes. Rather than hold back in my vulnerability, I can step forward and cheer them on, standing safe and secure in my identity.

Comparison not only steals joy, but encouragement, positivity and warmth. Comparison diminishes me and you and places a roadblock between us – everyone loses. I see so clearly why the enemy uses it so often. It holds us back from stepping into the fullness of who we were created to be, and brings animosity where they could be harmony and unity.

My moment of comparison last weekend was unpleasant, but it served as a rich reminder of all that can be stolen away when we set ourselves against others. And it allowed Jesus to remind me that his words over me are my true identity, and as such I suffer in comparison to no one.

Pay Attention

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ 1 Comment

Just before the turn of the year I wrote about how I was asking God to speak into this year ahead and if there was anything he wanted to say to me as I entered 2016. Among a couple of other things, the words I received were Pay Attention! And in true God-style, he then set about backing up that message in other places in my life.

Shortly after the New Year began, I read this quote by Lysa TerKeurst which stopped me in my tracks:

“We want big direction signs from God – God just wants us to pay attention.”

For the last few years, my husband and I have had some fairly major, ongoing prayer requests concerning big future life stuff and difficult circumstances. What I’ve come to realise is, when you’re in that place of having huge imposing situations dominate your prayer life, and your eyes are always on the horizon of what you’re praying to come into being, you can so easily take your eyes off today and what God would have you do in the now.

The truth is, I don’t know if I have tomorrow, let alone next week or next year. None of us do. We have been gifted today, crammed full of moments when God wants to speak to us, use us, show us things about himself, ourselves and the wonderful world around us. But if our eyes are always gazing into the distance, our prayers always asking about the things that are not yet, we miss the opportunities that God has set before us each and every day.

God had clearly already been trying to get my attention about this even before I had this revelation in December. A few weeks ago I found a piece of paper that I had tucked away in a Bible or a diary, as a prompt and reminder to myself for each day. Can you guess what it said?

“Father show me your priorities for what I should do today. Spirit prompt me to leave things undone so that I can pay attention to the things you want me to do.”

So it seems that I am someone who regularly takes their eye off the ball and needs many reminders about the same message before it really starts to sink in! In fact only this morning, I read these words from the gospel of Matthew in the Message translation:

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

Message received (pardon the pun).

Listening-Ear

It makes me wonder about how much I might have missed. How many times have I been so focussed on things I cannot change that I’ve missed the thing right in front of me where I could have made a difference? How many times has God tried to say to me, “That thing you’re praying about for three months times, I’ve got it covered – but there’s something I’d like you to do today.” How many times have I been so busy talking to God about the concerns of my heart that I haven’t kept quiet long enough to hear the concerns of his?

 

For someone who is a future-thinker, day-dreamer and a bit of an internal processor, my mind can so easily be anywhere but the here and now. But the here and now is where God has placed me. In this home, this community, this workplace and surrounded by these family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues. He has given me today, rich in Kingdom potential and possibility, if I choose to pay attention and see it.

There are still big prayer requests in my life, and of course I’m going to keep talking to God about them, but I’m more determined than ever to trust him with tomorrow so that I can pay attention to today.

Sometimes the darkness wins

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ Leave a comment

I’m sorry if this offends you, makes you uncomfortable or leads you to believe that I have terrible theology – but I think it’s true.

We just don’t like to admit it or talk about it.

Please understand, I believe whole-heartedly in an almighty and good God, whose love and transformational power can reach into even the most desperate of circumstances and bring healing and hope where there has been pain and despair. There is no situation beyond the touch of Jesus. But we live in the now and not yet of his kingdom and so sometimes, for whatever reasons, our prayers are not answered, the healing does not come and darkness wins.

Yes I know that in the big picture we are on the side of victory, that our hope is in heaven and our loving Father can bring all kinds of redemption from the worst of circumstances – but in the moments of pain and confusion, sitting in the darkness of loss, grief and unanswered questions, what we need most is company rather than cliche.

Lonely Man

I recently prayed with someone who had walked through a season in the valley of the shadow of death. After we had finished her main comment was to thank us for not offering a nice Bible verse or supposedly comforting Christian platitude. I’ve been on the receiving end of those myself, and rather than bring comfort or peace, they have left me feeling like a child who’s been given a dismissive pat on the head rather than a warm, healing embrace.

The Bible tells us that we are to “weep with those who weep”, but how often do we actually do that? Allow ourselves to really enter into another’s pain, sit with them in the confusion and keep them company in the darkness? That’s costly and uncomfortable, and perhaps challenges our safe and tidy Christian worldview. We struggle for something to say and dislike the silence, the loose threads – and so rather than feel any of that discomfort we reach instead for our favourite ‘helpful’ verse, like tossing a rubber ring to one who is struggling to stay afloat in stormy seas, and then walk away thinking that our bit is done.

Of course there are times when we need good friends to remind us of Biblical truths that we have lost sight of in the midst of the storm, when we need others to help carry our faith for a time when life has worn us down and waves of despair threaten to overwhelm us. But in my experience, we only win the right to do that in deep relationship and after having sat alongside for a while in the dark.

And so I am ready to accept that we live in a broken, wounded world and, although Jesus has won the war, sometimes the darkness wins the battle. Jesus will bring his hope and transformation when the time is right – my role, when I encounter someone in that place, is to say nothing more than “I’m so sorry. Can I sit with you awhile?”

The sun will come out.

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ Leave a comment

In the midst of a long Scottish winter you’d be forgiven for believing that the sun had ceased to exist. You can go for days, weeks even, without seeing a chink of sky, let alone the sun. My husband describes it as living under a Tupperware box.

I was sitting this week with a friend in her office, and we looked out over the city and bemoaned the short, dark days, the grim, grey sky and how long there was to go until spring. A fellow worker came into the room, looked out the window and declared that sun was about to come out. Oh how we laughed. And laughed and laughed. We continued our conversation and fifteen minutes later, lo and behold, there was a bright light squeezing through the clouds. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the sun came all the way out, but he did his best to gleam through the clouds for a few minutes, to remind us that all is not lost. He’s still there, giving us enough light and heat to live by through the winter. There are more dark days to come but in a few months time we’ll begin to see him again. (Although not too regularly, because we live in Scotland, and he clearly has important business elsewhere.)

001.JPG

Holding on to hope when everything around seems grey is a very hard thing to do.

Over the Christmas period I was struck by the stories of Simeon and Anna, who encountered Jesus when he was presented in the Temple. They had been waiting to meet him for a long time. A very long time

A Messiah had been promised. God had spoken many times through the prophets.

And then silence.

Four hundred years of silence.

How many lost hope in that time? Declared that God had forgotten them? Life was too hard and the Almighty too distant.

But God was still there, still whispering to his people, “Hope is coming. Hold on!”

Simeon listened to that whisper and believed. When all around was grey and silent he held on to hope, and acted upon it.

Anna had been married a short seven years before she lost her husband and became a widow. She knew the darkness of grief and loss, the ache of loneliness. But she lifted her eyes to heaven, held on to the promise of hope, living for the day when she would see it come to life. Year after year of praying and waiting, worshiping and watching.

And then he came.

Hope was born.

Everything changed. The world need never look so bleak again. There would forever and always be the promise of better.

For those of us who believe, we have the assurance that no sky of grey is ever without that chink of hope, no day too long or dark that his redeeming presence cannot bring comfort, and no path so uncertain that his lamp cannot lead us home. We can learn from the example of Anna, waiting in hope and faith through the years of grief and silence, trusting in the promises of Scripture.

But this gift is not for us to cherish alone. There are those around us trapped in the grey.

Sometimes people need to be told, the sun is going to come out, there is a God who loves and cares for you. And when they laugh at the seeming nonsense of that statement, because they cannot see or comprehend a God who loves them, we are to be the ones who pull back the clouds so they can feel His warmth.

A friend of mine once talked about what the Good News of the gospel actually looked like to people. Ultimately we share the good news of Jesus and the everlasting hope that He brings. But to an overwhelmed single Mum with two small children, perhaps good news comes first as an offer of babysitting. To an isolated and lonely older person, maybe good news looks like company before it looks like anything else. To the person being bullied, good news looks like a champion, a defender. And to the outcast it looks like a welcome, a place to belong.

Hope is here. We know it and celebrate it, hold on to it and are strengthened by it, bask in its warmth and turn our faces towards it.

And then we share it.

Away in a Manger

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ 2 Comments

This is a reflection that I have written for Tearfund Scotland’s resource Safe Refuge at Christmas . It includes some beautiful films, prayer ideas and ways to give to the Middle East Appeal.

LEB_2015a_DXC_R

 

A mother’s instinct, the same throughout the centuries – to protect her child.

To give him the best that she can.

How did Mary feel, laying her precious one in the rough wood of a cattle manger?

No extended family for comfort, support or advice.

“No room here. Nor here. You’ll have to move on. Try over there.”

As she gazed at her son sleeping in the hay, did she whisper an apology to him; that she had hoped for something different?

When Joseph told her of his dream, and urged her to gather the child and come quickly, what fears filled her heart?

The stars in the bright sky shone as they fled across borders into foreign lands, looking over their shoulders, wondering when they would see home again.

This Son of God, born into the most humble of circumstances.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

A father’s instinct, the same throughout the centuries – to protect his child.

To give him the best he can.

How did Abdullah Kurdi feel, watching his young sons sleep in war torn Damascus?

As they fled to Turkey with no extended family for comfort, support or advice.

Trying to find a way to support his family.

“No room here. Nor here. You’ll have to move on. Try over there.”

As he gazed at little Aylan, sleeping in a makeshift bed, did he whisper an apology to him; that he had hoped for something different?

When he told his wife to gather the children and together they boarded a boat for Greece, what fears filled his heart?

The stars in the bright sky shone as they tried to flee across borders and oceans, looking over their shoulders, wondering when they would see home again. Hoping they might reach land again.

These children of God, born into the most humble and difficult of circumstances.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

You had nowhere to lay your head Lord, and neither did they.

Neither do so many.

Be near them, Lord Jesus, we ask you to stay close by them.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care, and grant that we might do the same.

 

Safe Refuge at Christmas

Giving Thanks

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ Leave a comment

The UK has been influenced by many stateside trends and habits over the years and, although Thanksgiving hasn’t been one of them (for obvious reasons),due to our increased mobility around the globe and modern technology I seem to be surrounded by Thanksgiving more than ever this year. Whether it’s American friends on social media, those from this country who hold the US dear to their hearts and have adopted the practice, or authors and bloggers sharing their plans and thoughts on the holiday, my newsfeed has been awash with all things Thanksgiving.

I love the idea of setting aside time to be grateful, and am an advocate of the benefits of gratitude. From keeping a thanksgiving journal to posting #100happydays on Instagram, I have found the deliberate practice of giving thanks to be one of the most uplifting things I can do.

The wonderful thing about gratitude is that the more you do it, the more you find to be grateful for. It’s as though you’ve learned to look for hidden treasure and once you recognise what real treasure is, you find it everywhere. The embrace of a loved one, a sunlit field of corn on an autumn morning, the innocent joy of child skipping down the road, a listening ear over a warm cup of tea.

002.JPG

When we lived for a time in Jamaica one of the things that I loved most was the response that many Christian friends gave when we asked how they were.

“Giving thanks”, came the reply.

How wonderful.

That someone would summarize their entire wellbeing as an attitude of thanksgiving.

What would it mean for me to live a life ‘giving thanks’?

How would it change my perspective if, rather than grumble about what was not, I was grateful for what was? If I found ways to give thanks for the simple things, instead of yearning for the more that is just out of reach?

As I wake in the morning, what if I began the day giving thanks for the breath in my body, the warmth of the shower, the clothes on my back and the work to which I put my hand?

As my stomach rumbles in the approach to lunch, instead of wolfing down my food to stop the hunger, what if I was truly thankful for the sustenance, savouring each mouthful and enjoying the company of those who shared my table? A simple everyday lunch time could be transformed into a feast of flavours and friendship.

And what if I was to verbalise my gratitude more often, rather than just think it to myself?  Would it have an impact not just on my state of wellbeing, but on those around me? If people knew how thankful I was for their presence in my life, for their wisdom, their service, for making me smile, would they be encouraged to do those things more often and for others?

One of my favourite quotes is this one from Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Each and every day is crammed full of things to be thankful for, if only we have the eyes to see them.

I want to seek them out.

To set out in the morning as an adventurer looking for that day’s treasure, coming home laden with loot from the things I’ve found. To share the joys and wonders so that others might be thankful too.

And so I begin today.

On this day of Thanksgiving I will set my alarm for every hour – a reminder to step back from my keyboard and look around. To speak words of gratitude, to those in front of me and to my Father above me. To see what I so often overlook. To find what is forgotten on every other day.

And tomorrow?

Well maybe the alarm won’t go every hour, but I think I’ll keep it for one hour of every day.

A way to begin practising what it means to live, not just a day, but a life ‘giving thanks’.

 

Full Laundry, Fresh Style: the final analysis

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ Leave a comment

Laundry pinterest

(Please excuse the strange blend of fonts – I tried but couldn’t fix it this morning and wanted to get this post up!)

It’s here at last, the end of my FLFS Challenge. If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about you can read my previous post with full explanation and background here but, in short, I have worked my way through my entire wardrobe, not laundering anything or buying anything new until I had worn everything in there!

I have a few key learning points and reflections from this challenge that I’d love to briefly share with you.

1. I have a lot of clothes. A LOT.


2. My shopping habits, albeit mainly from charity shops, had gotten way out of hand. I was in the habit of buying things that I liked but didn’t love and definitely didn’t need. As a result there were quite a few things that I didn’t wear that often but sat there taking up space.


3. I do have some items in my wardrobe that I truly love and want to wear more, but they were getting crowded out by all of the other stuff.


4. You CAN change your shopping habits, and going cold turkey is actually very refreshing and freeing.


5. I have a new appreciation of the clothes I already have. I’m about to do a mountain of ironing and when it all goes back into my wardrobe I will feel like the richest woman in the world, all with stuff I already own.


6. Instead of charity shops I’m going to try arranging clothes swaps as a way to bring new items into my wardrobe. I’m also going to rotate what’s in my wardrobe more often so that things feel new to me when I see them and so I’m therefore less tempted to but something new, just for a fresh change.

This has been a great challenge to do, helping me to see what I own in a new light, changing my habits of consumption and helping me to ask myself some important questions about what I buy, why I buy it and if there are other ways to think about that process.

If you’ve found yourself in an unhelpful shopping habit and need a bit of a wake-up call, why not give it a try – or something like it. If you do, I’d love to hear how you get on.

And if you’re nearby and fancy a clothes swap, I’m your girl.

Speak Life

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ Leave a comment

The charity that I work for has recently said goodbye to the Chief Executive who we’ve had for the last ten years. At his final staff conference during the summer, several senior members of staff paid tribute to him and something that one of them said really challenged me.

He talked of how Matthew would respond to any negative talk with the question, “How would things be different if you said that in a way that brought life?”

Ouch.

I immediately recognise times when I have responded too quickly, been overly critical, judgemental, sarcastic or simply discouraging. I remember the times when I have back-tracked, apologised or felt great regret over words that I have spoken, knowing that they have brought anything but life.

007Proverbs 15 v 4 says, “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”

I know that I have crushed more than a few spirits in my time, through my careless words or ill-chosen sentiments. And I can recall what it feels like to be on the receiving end of those responses from others.

The thing that I find interesting about Matthew’s challenge however, is the suggestion that we can say all manner of things that need to be said, can speak honestly and tell the truth in difficult circumstances, but still do it in a way that allows people to flourish rather than fade. This isn’t about us all simply saying nice things to each other while thinking something entirely different, nor is it about being hypocritical. It’s an opportunity for me to bring out the best in someone with what I say, a chance for them to see things from a wider perspective, not just come around to my point of view. It’s about me taking a few moments (or even longer) before I speak and asking God how he would have me respond – taking that time to stand in the other person’s shoes and ask myself, “If I was about to hear this, how would I want it to be said?”

As a native of Northern Ireland living in Scotland, I think this is something we Celts particularly need to hear. We love a bit of banter, but it often takes the form of putting someone down. We may well claim that it’s all in jest, but it begins to form a wider culture around how we speak to people, and about them, which has more than a tinge of negativity about it.

Negativity doesn’t bring life. Instead it breeds disillusionment, discouragement, fear and self-doubt. Rather than spurring someone on to better, it makes them shrink back, second guess or even stop. It makes everyone just that bit smaller.

What if, instead, we spoke words that brought life?

Rather than disagreeing with disdain, we instead offered a different approach? As opposed to shouting someone down for the things we don’t like, we spoke only of what we appreciated in them? Rather than tearing down a person’s plans, we contributed to build something stronger and better?

I wonder what ideas are out there that have never seen the light of day because someone was put down as they began to offer it? What answers have been left unspoken because a negative environment closed down all possibility of them being breathed into life? What creativity has remained untapped because someone was told that they couldn’t, shouldn’t step forward?

The world needs every good idea it can get hold of. The people with those ideas will probably have a dozen terrible plans before then come up with the answer that works. What if they’ve become so disheartened by the response to their first twelve suggestions that they never reach the magic number 13? What if they’ve been made to feel foolish for opening their mouths? Or worse, in our Celtic eyes, become a little too precocious in their plans and schemes and so need bringing down a peg or two? Perhaps, having been brought down, they don’t climb back up. The world doesn’t ever see them shine.

Either way, we all lose.

Today, let’s find a way to harness the best of people and what they offer. Let’s disagree with grace and understanding .

Can we open our minds to hear and entertain opinions we don’t think we’ll like? Can we seek out the nugget of possibility in what’s shared and fan it into the flame of potential?

Today, can we listen and then speak in a way that brings life?

(**Thank you Matthew, for the challenge!)

Confessions of a Listaholic

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ Leave a comment

Hello, my name is Tara and I’m a listaholic.

I am a maker of lists. I don’t just mean the usual lists of grocery shopping or things that I need to get done at work on any given day. I am a maker of lists on an industrial scale. I have lists for work, lists for when I come home, a list on my phone for Christmas and the beginning of a list for an activity next year. I have lists coming out of my ears.

Even today, on a mid week day off after a working weekend, a day that I have been anticipating for rest and relaxation, there is a list. And a list that keeps being added to.

Last night I began to ask myself some questions about that. What is that all about? On your list of things to do, why do you even write down a reminder to do your #100happydays picture for Instagram?! Why does it matter that much? Who would notice, who would care, if something slipped off the list or didn’t get done?

I would know.

And the eldest child, big sister part of me would be quite unhappy. Responsibility and dependability are what we bring to the party. If that goes, what will people think? That I’m unreliable or, god forbid, lazy? That won’t do.

But I’m tired and weary and my body and soul just want a rest. Down time. No lists!

In the back of my mind I know that even if I set the list aside there would still be the spectre of Really Should. You have a whole day off, you really should do the hovering. Look at the mess in the kitchen, you really should tidy it up. All those things on the list you just set down – you know you really should do them!

I give in to Really Should all the time and, you know what? She’s a bully. And if you give into bullies then they just keep bullying. But if you confront them, they often have no power at all.

“Oh yeah, Really Should – who says so? That’s right – no one.”

No one says I really should except for me.

So here’s what I’m going to do today – I’m going to gag Really Should and embrace Really Must. I really must sit for a while and do nothing but stare out the window, allow silence to fill my world and let my soul be entirely at rest. I really must go outside for a walk, take time to smell the roses and listen to the birdsong. I really must resist the temptation to add those things to my list!

I don’t anticipate throwing the list out entirely as I’m not sure that going cold turkey would be helpful and might induce panic. But I am determined not to let the list beat me over the head. I want to find the ability to truly rest, while still embracing the fact that I am someone who likes some order and to get stuff done. Can I do that?

Am I alone in this lunacy? Does anyone relate to a Life of Lists with a side order of Really Shoulds?

If you’re out there perhaps we can form a support group. I’ll add that to my list.

Full Laundry Fresh Style

~ cultivatingandcreating ~ Leave a comment

A couple of months ago I read an article about someone who was doing a decluttering of their wardrobe and they included a piece of advice that I’d read dozens of times before: go through what you have and if you haven’t worn it in a year then get rid of it. Give it to charity, sell it or throw it out. I’ve always been a little dubious about that idea but this time it really struck me – I actually think it’s nonsense.

Why haven’t you worn those clothes for a year? Is it because they genuinely no longer fit or you’ve completely worn them out? Or is it more likely that you’ve just become bored with them at some stage and bought more stuff? And as you’ve bought more stuff the closet gets even more full and those boring item goes right to the back – isn’t that right? Finally we arrive at the stage where we think ‘I’ve got too much – I need to declutter!’ We may feel good getting rid of stuff at the time but most of us know that we’re just making room for more. And in a year or two we’ll put together a new outfit and think “oh I need a green cardigan to go with this – I used to have one of those but I gave it away – now I’ll have to buy a new one.”

We seem to have become conditioned to believe that joy is only to be found in the new, therefore if you’ve had it for a while and no longer use it, you are within your right to say goodbye. This completely ignores the fact that, at one time, you liked this item enough to buy it and (hopefully) wear it. (Although there is a frightening statistic that the average British woman hoards £285 of clothes they will never wear.) If we actually looked into our wardrobes a little more closely, would we rediscover items that we could still very happily wear, rather than always reaching for the same things or thinking that we need something new? If we tuck things away for a while and then bring them out afresh will it feel like we have something new, when really it was ours all along and we’d simply forgotten about it? Livia Firth, eco campaigner (and wife of Colin), takes great joy in highlighting the things she wears that she’s had for many, many years with the hashtag #sustainablewardrobe .

I love clothes, and I love to shop. However I also care about the ethics of my wardrobe and so I do quite a bit of my purchasing in charity shops. This has led me to take on an attitude that all my shopping is guilt free and so I’ll merrily carry on. I have also been under the impression that if I bought something and didn’t like it, I could simply pop it back into a charity shop bag where it would benefit someone else. The whole cycle was a beautiful eco-shoppers dream – until I watched the film The True Cost. I thoroughly recommend that you get a copy (or it’s available on Netflix I believe) and let yourself be challenged by the state of the garment industry. This is an issue that I’ve been passionate about for a while but the film has reinvigorated that interest and has brought some fresh perspectives. For example, the clothes that I send off to a charity shop will not necessarily be bought by someone else. And if they’re not purchased they will be shipped to a developing country where they will flood their markets with very cheap clothes, or they will be put into landfill and leak toxic fumes into the atmosphere. Suddenly my theoretically righteous shopping habits became a bit more suspect.

I do often look into my wardrobe at things I haven’t worn in quite some time and think that I should get them out and figure what to put them with – but then I reach for the same 40% of my wardrobe day after day, week after week. So what to do with all the clothes that I have that I haven’t worn in ages? Finally this past weekend I came up with a plan : don’t do laundry! If the things that I always reach for stay in the washing basket then I’ll be forced to dig deeper and deeper into my closet and wear the things I actually own.

This is my plan, (which I started last Sunday) : I have emptied my washing and ironing baskets and have all of my clothes at my disposal, and aside from washing necessary undergarments etc, I will not do any more laundry until I have worked my way through my entire wardrobe. Let me be clear – I’m talking normal clothes. I’m not going to run out of stuff to wear and then turn up to the office in a bridesmaid dress because that’s the only thing left!

I’m hoping to gain something valuable from this experience. I would like to rediscover joy and gratitude in how abundantly blessed I already am. I hope to exercise fresh creativity in putting together new combinations of clothes I may never have tried before. I love to be creative in this way and recognise that it’s sometimes laziness that stops me making the most of what I have. I think there are rich pickings in my wardrobe just waiting to be discovered anew. I will also, hopefully, prove to myself that I can stop shopping – at least for quite a while!*

Plus, no laundry! BONUS. (I appreciate that I am heading for one almighty laundry mountain at the end of all this, but hey, for now my washing machine will enjoy the rest.) I’m calling this little experiment Full Laundry, Fresh Style and you are very welcome to join me if you feel the need to re-explore your own wardrobe. If I find any clothes combinations along the way that I’m particularly proud of I’ll let you know and I’ll keep you posted in a couple of weeks time with how I’m getting on. For now I’m off to decide what to wear tomorrow…

*I feel I must confess: between the time of writing this and posting it I did actually buy one more garment – but it was a case of serious wardrobe malfunction!! A very full floaty skirt and a windy day made it highly likely that I would spend an entire afternoon flashing my underwear around the city of Edinburgh and, y’know, I’m just not that kind of girl. So to save my blushes I bought a quick charity shop garment to continue on my way in all modesty – but that’s me done now, I promise!