Mere days ago I decided for various reasons to trade in a very reliable vehicle I have had for a little over four years for a newer, sportier, more powerful model. And, while I was quite excited to have a new car, there was a strange sort of sadness and remorse I felt over having just “given up” on my old car. As I was leaving the dealership with my shiny new vehicle I found myself looking in the rear-view mirror at my old car and having the sickening feeling that I had just tied up my old faithful dog to a tree, whining for me to come back as I completely ignored him and carried away a brand new puppy. Damn, writing that makes me feel REALLY sad and a little sick to the stomach, but honestly the sensation was intensely sorrowful and for the next two three days I have been having deep thoughts that lead me to this article.
As I was sharing my feelings with a spiritually-minded friend about the sorrow over the loss of my old car he quipped,”Well of course you feel like somethings lost. Think about how many conversations you’ve had in that car, how many emotionally charged moments, how many long drives just thinking about your life, your relationships, your job etc as you commute to and from work every day. A lot of your energy is in that car and when you gave it away, you lost some of yourself along with it.”
Of course!
For the rest of that of that day I began thinking about all the other ways in which we gives something of ourselves away when we lose something. Some of us have lost a loved one who was very close to us and it is not uncommon for someone to say, “the day they died, a part of me died”. Or consider a spouse whom we loved for many years only to find one day they unexpectedly run off with someone else and we say “when they left me, they took a part of me with them.” Or consider the artist who spends so much time and effort into creating his masterpiece that he is reluctant to let it go and sell it because there is a part of them in that painting or work of art.
I’m coming more and more to the understanding that we literally infuse energy into the THINGS we spend a great deal of time with. We infuse energy into those things we handle or are in contact with when we are in a highly energetic state (be that anger, sadness, joy or ecstasy). This applies to our cars, our couches in front of the television set, our dining room table and chairs, a favorite board game, a personal computer, a laptopop or even a cell phone. Literally everything we use or come in contact with every day is continually exchanging energy with us. Over time I believe those THINGS start to develop a form of consciousnesses of their own from the energies it has absorbed.
Take houses for example. I believe that houses take on the spirit or energy of their previous owners. Every person that has lived there, every thing that house has witnessed, has somehow been imprinted in small energetic ways into the very walls and fabric of it’s existence. I once read that in places like Japan, they are utterly confused how Americans can just buy a home without inquiring about the previous owners. For them, it is intuitively obvious that the prior occupants have filled that home with THEIR energy. If the home experienced intense sadness or tragedy, one might do well to consider that before moving in for it may be possible that negative energy is still hanging around. Energy is magical and I think most of us have no real understanding about how it works, is it possible THINGS take on a life of their own?
Another spiritually minded friend offered this piece of advice, “Talk to your things, build a relationship with it!” And of course! This makes sense to me now. Have you ever seen a Hollywood movie or television show where someone needs to get away quickly and their car suddenly won’t start for them? Often you see them talking to their car, “Come on Betsy, don’t do this to me now. One more time! Just work for me, please!” And often the car starts up for them and off they go. Of course these are just movies but it makes me think there’s a little something to this to consider. Can we build an relationship with our THINGS? Can our urging a good friend to come through one more time give it some sort of energetic push to perform once again for us? It may sound silly but I’m considering it more and more as I feel the need to connect with my things.
Eventually physical things wear out. This is a material world and things break down over time. Even our human bodies break down too and one day the spiritual energy that is using your physical body now will have to give up it’s temporary vehicle it’s been riding around in and get a new body much like trading in that old car for a new one. But when it does come time to part with our things, it might serve us well to take a little time to properly say goodbye.
Do not be afraid to do a little ritual and say goodbye properly to those things that have served their purpose in your life. While it is too late to properly say goodbye to my old car now, I keep going back to those thoughts I had watching it in the rear-view mirror as I drove away. “I should have taken you for one last drive. It should have just been you and me, out on a nice long drive and I should have expressed to you how much you’ve meant to me in my life over the past four years and how thankful I was to have such a reliable friend. And, while the time has come for us to go different ways, I know you will make a new owner proud and form new friendships. Goodbye old friend. I’ll miss you!