Clearing out the Clutter - by Liz Carter

We all love Shrove Tuesday for the pancakes, don't we. I'm a big pancake fan - lemon and sugar, Nutella and whipped cream, honey and banana - all the lovely things. We go for it big style here, with a whole production line of pancakes produced using two frying pans. Having two young adults, we can never quite seem to produce enough. 'More,' they cry pitifully in Oliver Twist style. 

What do pancakes have to do with writing, you may ask? It's simply that it got me to thinking about what Shrove Tuesday is supposed to be all about. Traditionally, people absolved themselves before Lent started, ready with a clean slate for the Lenten fast in both household food items and in their own body and spirit. They would clear out all the rich foods that wouldn't be included in the fast - hence the butter and flour  - and clear them away by eating them all up in pancake form (at least from around the 16th century, anyway!) And they would clear out the stuff clogging up their souls, as well, with acts of penance - 'shriving' - and burning the previous year's Holy Week palms. Basically, they cleared out all of their clutter and prepared themselves to sit before God, fasting and reflecting.

We all have a load of clutter. And I don't just mean in our homes - although my house is particularly cluttered at present, with one home from uni and one home from school, and all their detritus. Elder child brought down a whole cardboard box of crockery the other day...sigh. But we clutter our souls and our minds, too. Sometimes the clutter is words written on us from years gone past, from multiple rejections in writing and in life. Maybe at the moment the clutter is a year's worth of sadness and grief, or isolation and loneliness, all fighting for space in our weary minds. Maybe it is to do with our own sin and rebellion, and a bit of shriving wouldn't go astray. 

In our writing life, the clutter mounts up quickly too in myriad ways. Maybe it's clutter on our computer that needs a good clear out, maybe it's more about us setting realistic goals for ourselves and being kind to ourselves when things are tough. I read a thread the other day on the ACW Facebook page, about where people feel they are with their writing now and how it's been going for the past year - it was an excellent thread (thank you, Wendy!) full of honesty and encouragement for one another, of understanding when things don't go as planned. So many of you wrote of a fallow year in writing terms, of simply coping with life, the pressures of working and homeschooling and mourning and loneliness all piling on to clutter up your spirit and mind so much that writing took a back seat. It's been hard, and we so need places to admit that. We so need the love and empathy of one another when life gets in the way.

So how can we clear out our writing clutter, and the clutter of life in general - as it's all interconnected, anyway? How can we shrive ourselves and our lives today, ready for the paring down of tomorrow? While I'd love to say just stuff yourself with pancakes as a symbolic gesture and then all will be well, I don't think it quite works like that. It's perhaps more to do with an intention of heart and spirit, a decision we might make sometime today to breathe out our clutter and begin to breathe in the austerity of the Lenten period. 

Here are a few ideas:

• Find a few moments to sit down with God and ask him to declutter your spirit by filling you anew with the Holy Spirit. Ask him to show you where the clutter is, where the unhelpful words and times of rejection are stacked up, and to breathe his words of life straight through those words. Spend time simply breathing in his presence.
• Think about your writing journey this year. You might want to read the FB thread, if you haven't already. Think about where it has taken you, the highs and lows, and whether it has encouraged or discouraged you. Think about how you can let yourself off the pressure of needing to perform or be productive, how times are tough and it's ok to simply let go of that a while. 
• Clear out the clutter on your computer - it will do you the world of good!
• If you are struggling with the path forward, perhaps juggling several projects or ideas, spend some time writing down the pros and cons of each, and listening to your soul - you will know, deep down, the writing that is going to bring you most joy in this time. And you need a bit of joy, don't you...
• If you have no time or energy at all for writing right now, then breathe out the pressure and admit to yourself that it's ok not to write. Ask God for his peace in all the clutter in your life, and for his strength in all that you are facing.
• Eat pancakes. And tell me, in the comments, what fillings you like...