Joy Station: Swedish Death Cleaning

In 2008, I had a vision of a place where I could do all the things that I loved doing and share them with others. The vision came with a very clear name: Joy Station.

The vision was so strong that I attended business courses at the small business administration and started an LLC. For several years, anytime I made money freelance writing or teaching classes, it was through Joy Station LLC.

Around 2020, I let the LLC lapse. Nothing was happening with it anymore. It seemed like I would be a corporate worker until I retired. I had given up on the vision.

But working corporate jobs became increasingly stressful. Wondering if there’s a layoff around the corner and working your tail off so you’re not the one of the chopping block —all with a smile— isn’t how I want to live.

A little over a year ago, I left my corporate job. I didn’t know what I was going to do exactly.

I figured I’d pick up some freelance writing work, which I did. I figured I’d reboot my real estate business, which I did. I figured I’d make free audiobooks of my books and put them on YouTube. I did that too.

Somehow everything I needed kept coming to me.

In September, I had a month before a freelance contract started, so I started doing something I’d been thinking about doing for a while—Swedish Death Cleaning.

The idea of being surrounded only by most important, favorite things and knowing that my life was in order felt so light to me. During the process, I started listening to Catherine Ponder’s books and learned her take on the Vacuum Law of Prosperity and how release is magnetic.

I’m at the tail end of the process now. I’ll be delivering 14 boxes and bags at a donation center when it opens this morning. I’ll come home and continue tidying. I have about 1,000 books I still need to release and a garage laid out as the garage sale I’ll have this spring.

I’m astonished by how many emotions have bubbled and erupted out through this process. All the regrets, sadness, grief, anger had somehow been tied up in all the stuff that I’d surrounded myself with. At times, I literally had to lie in bed for the better part of the day, working through the feelings. I gained 10 pounds eating my emotions.

I had a tearful conversation with my mother about the baby I never had. And how it still hurts.

So many memories and faces have popped into mind’s eye, ready for resolution, harmony and peace.

The process has returned me to a daily practice of prayer and meditation. I’m worrying less about the future knowing that God will always provide for our needs. I’m living more one day at a time instead of trying to push and strain my way to what I want.

My faith has returned.

Joy Station returned, and she’s ready to play.

I’m not sure what she’ll look like but I feel it evolving. I sit each morning and pray, meditate and read Catherine Ponder’s Prosperity Decrees. Then I write out my lists of what I’d like to accomplish the next few days.

Swedish Death Cleaning made me look at life again, to come back the basics of joy and peace.

It not only has cleared my space, it’s created a space for what I’ve yearned for most: do what I love and have everything I need to live a life that means something to me and my community.