What's under your bed?

Some years ago, a friend came to stay. She was interested in the art course I had taken. I rushed upstairs to get out the drawings and paintings that I had brought back from London, spread them out on the floor, and talked and talked about the doing of them.

Then took them back upstairs and pushed them back under the bed.

Sometime later, it struck me – what I loved most at that moment was hidden away. Under the bed. Among clumps of dust. In the dark.

Why do we do that?

The most innocent explanation is that we live shifting lives. We organize our living spaces for how life is, and then it changes – a child leaves home, we find a new passion, our income changes. And the living space is still set up for the old and not for the new.

In this instance, I had become passionate about learning to make art, and my living space was not organized to receive the growing pile of drawings and paintings. Under the bed was the easiest solution.

It was time, I realized, time to re-organize how my living space supports how I want to live NOW.

What have you pushed under the bed that needs to be brought out into your living space?