Cured of Hoarding

I have been a hoarder for most of my married life. I sometimes wonder if this was because of a childhood where we never really had much. My parents left Hungary with just the clothes on their backs. They left in dead of night, crossing over the border into Austria after the revolution against the Russians taking over their homeland. They came to Australia as refugees and were housed in Bonegilla refugee camp in Victoria. I was born at Albury Base Hospital and later we were sponsored by some lovely families in Tasmania, finally settling in South Australia

I consider myself fortunate to have been born in this lucky country and can’t see myself ever wanting to leave here. This is where I belong!  My children are Australians as are my grandsons. With all the turmoil around the globe I can understand the reasons behind so many boat people wanting to come here to live. They want to be free to live their lives without fear and terror, without being reduced to illness and poverty as they were before. Isn’t this want any parent wants for their children? Isn’t this what everyone wants and needs to be happy?

I feel so sorry for all those people who feel they need to leave their homes to undergo a perilous journey just to get here. They see this wide brown land and want to make their homes here because of our freedoms and culture. I am an Aussie and though I understand their plight, I also see how many Aussies are afraid to let them in. Why should we accept so many others who will not change their ways and become Aussies like us, but want to continue with their own religious beliefs? Why should we let in Muslims who may or may not be terrorists just waiting to rise up and kill us all?

With all the terrible things happening all over the world, how can we feel safe? How can we be assured of anything when we see how the whole world is falling apart before our eyes? So many earthquakes, so many floods, so many cyclones and tornados killing people wherever you look! Even here in Australia there have been floods, cyclones, bushfires and murders, people afraid to leave their doors unlocked for fear of being killed in their own beds! What is this world coming to? We are coming to the point where we are afraid of our own shadows!

What happened to trust in God and prayer? So many do not even believe in God any more! Schools have to call the Easter holiday by another name so as not offend all the others who may not believe in what we do! We should not have to change our ways, it is those who come here should change to fit in. So many problems arise from all these things that need to be considered. It seems as if everything is being turned upside down! Everything has to be politically correct.

So many rules and regulations are being forced upon us to try and stem the tide of problems that are coming about.

No smoking in this or that place! No smoking in cars where children are present!

I agree that we need certain rules and regulations to protect the young and the elderly from being abused, from predators being able to prey on the weak and the ill, but where will it all end? When will there be enough rules and regulations to make the whole world safe? When will things start getting better?

It seems like it will never happen because there will always be those who will be able to skirt around the rules and do what they want any way. The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer and strife will abound.

We are starting to become a cashless society. Look at that advert where the guy buying the sandwich and paying with cash is looked down upon for holding up the line! There are so many people being scammed and having their lives turned upside down by identity thieves. Everywhere you look there are problems. What is this world coming to when you are afraid to stop your car on the side of the road to offer help to someone who is stranded because others are doing the same on purpose to rob you?

God help us!

There needs to be a massive change in all our lives to help us all to realise how important it is to go back to teaching the Ten Commandments in school. How important it is to go back to God and ask for His help! There needs to be a revival of interest in the basic goodness we were taught as children. When it was still safe to let your kids ride their bikes over to friends homes and stay for hours without us living in fear that someone or something might have happened to them.

Please, everyone, we need to come together and pray for so many who need our help without even realising it. We need to pray for our neighbour and take care of the widows and the elderly and the ill and weak. This is our job! This is our mission. It is not to gather ‘things’ or to hoard our wealth for you all know that we can’t take it with us! Every ‘thing’ can be replaced but life is too precious to waste in worry of what is to come.

All the things I’d hoarded are now gone and in the dump. All the things that I wanted to keep for my grandchildren are now destroyed. All that I thought would “come in handy” at some later date is now in a huge hole being used as landfill.

The most important thing is that I have finally realised that ‘things’ don’t bring you happiness. Surrounding myself with things just made everything more difficult to cope with the mess that the flood left of our home.