How can kitchen utensils spark spiritual evolution?

I spent last week with my grandchildren at their house. Their parents were on vacation. I had a blast, but I noticed a strange phenomenon. I wasn’t attached to any of the “stuff” in the home.

This was most noticeable when I was cooking. I’d paw through the utensil drawer and feel completely neutral about everything I saw and used. In the drawer, there wasn’t the wooden spoon I don’t like and don’t know why I keep it. There wasn’t the bold red baster my friend gave me or the misshaped Pioneer Seed paring knife that I have to use with caution if I don’t want to get hurt. The utensils I saw were simply tools and meant nothing more. And truthfully, that neutrality felt a little weird.

This was a huge revelation for me.

Huge.

Why? Because it showed me how I’d given my energy away without even realizing it. Without awareness, I’d formed an attachment to inanimate objects meant to be useful and nothing more. I’d made them personal, my mind instantly and automatically creating stories of likes, dislikes for each without even realizing it.

No wonder so many people get upset if something gets broken or stolen, because it becomes personal. An attachment. An investment of energy. It belongs to me.

That’s the confusion. The “me” that’s upset and telling the story is not actually you. It’s a false sense of self that you’ve unconsciously identified with as you. Like I unconsciously identified with my kitchen utensils as something other than tools.

It’s easy to imagine why someone could become a hoarder, or unreasonably angry over their stuff. Instead of simply using material items as they were meant to be used, they become a false sense of who we are. And if our stuff is threatened, or we don’t think we have enough stuff, we feel insecure, unsafe, personally assaulted as if our very nature is somehow threatened and under attack.

None of this is true about us. Nothing about our authentic nature is ever less or limited in any way and nothing real about us can ever be threatened. We are the all of it. But it’s hard to remember that if we don’t stay aware of where and what we align our energy with. If we’re aligned with material stuff as our sense of self, we will never know ourselves fully and always have an underlying insecurity about the relevance and sacredness of our life. We will forever be looking outside of ourselves for life’s meaning, which cannot be found anywhere other than within.

This week I invite you to take a good look at everything you own. Pay attention to the stories that leap to your mind as you view each item. Have you given your energy to an inanimate object without realization? Have you elevated its meaning to more than a tool or pleasantry? Would you feel emotional if it were gone, like sorrow, depressed, anxious, angry? Does your happiness depend on the item? Does your sense of accomplishment, worth, well-being, security depend on the item? Can you easily give the item away without remorse or regret?

This is deep inner work in self-awareness. Be patient and compassionate with yourself as you move through this exercise in knowing yourself better so you can consciously decide what serves you best in your evolutionary journey.

And as always, I’m available for private sessions if you need deeper understanding, support, or guidance in the form of energy work or intuitive life coaching.