Beloveds, it is not all that you have to do that makes you tense. It is all you haven't done. It is the accumulation of the past that tires you. The solution is so simple. Do not accumulate the past even in the sense of day-to-day things to do. Perhaps what is left undone can stay undone. Maybe it doesn't matter. In any case, do not keep carrying it over your shoulders for then you get weighed down.
Start over every day. Do not carry over tasks from the day before. Every day is new. And what you feel you must take care of is new every day too. If you make lists, do not go by the previous ones. If you must make lists, make a new list today. Let fall by the wayside what falls by the wayside. What is less important to you will sift itself out. What is most important to you will arise.
The world cannot tell you what is most important for you, for the world does not know.
One thing is certain. You are not here for the prime purpose of checking off what you have done, as if it were truly an accomplishment, nor are you here to worry about what you have to do next as if the world or your life depended upon it. What does depend upon the tasks you perform really?
Will the sun rise tomorrow? Will you go to sleep tonight and rise tomorrow like the sun? And if you do not wake on the morrow, will you be noted for the tasks you checked off on your list?
When something is done, what is the difference, beloveds?
Your merit is not in the list of things you have done. Nor is your demerit in what you have not done.
Start over. You want a new lease on life? Here, you have it. I give it to you.
That each day is new is a more profound thought than you have allowed it to be. Be you new with the day.
Experiment with throwing away your lists for a day or two. You may enjoy spontaneity.
In the same way, when your house is cluttered, it wears you out. Clutter also is an accumulation from the past. The past means you no harm. But what is past is past. You cannot keep the past with you. No matter how you may decry the past, you still seem to want to keep it. It is not that you are to hide the past. It is that you are to clear it. It is not that you erase it but, as you would a bird who trapped in your house, you let it fly out the window.
With clutter, you may have to throw it out, or, more gently, give it away. Yes, give away the past, and give away the clutter. The past confines you. Clutter confines you. What is the use of it all anyway?
Perhaps it has a use, if you call obstruction a use! Certainly, clutter obstructs you. Do you really want to be obstructed? Would you not like a clear playing field?
Life is not a used-car lot.
A forest is full of trees and other vegetation, but you cannot say a forest is cluttered. Everything in the forest grows. The trees that have fallen provide you with a place to sit, and they provide nourishment for the next tree, as do the leaves, as do the insects and animals. All in perfect union and synchrony.
Where is the synchrony of tasks undone and clutter? Where is the union of heart and mind amidst the undone and the clutter?
Of course, it is really the mind that gets cluttered and doesn't know how to sort itself out. But now I have told you how — by letting go.