Move date is set and movers hired: November 2. What we leave behind: a lot of recycled papers, superfluous kitchenwares, battered and abused electronics. What we take: our books, our cats, our small comforts.It's now or when I'm much older that I must dispense with so much of life's little extras, and, my, how they compound! When my mother passed away in July, we were relieved of having to dispose of all her life's material since she had done most of it when she had her last move into my brother and sister-in-law's home. We had very little to dispose of or to find new owners for. This has become my model. Each move should be a paring down.
What's left: what's important: books, cats, plants, cleaning supplies, clothing, music CDs, and only the minimum of the files and papers I have lugged for years from place to place, thinking that certain parts of my life would be revisited: teaching, business plans, financial plans, plans, plans. Dealing with them now means confronting the plans I won't fulfill, that I have had to abandon, or want to let go of. This is not easy. Some of the things I am leaving or throwing away represent missed opportunities, failures, incomplete forms, calls I couldn't make; they represent years of depression when I didn't know that's what it was but thought I was simply lazy or a failure.To release so much now feels like a true liberation. The truth is I am going forward and letting the past take care of itself. It will revisit me, of that I am sure, in my dreams and poems.
Photos: two views, from the window of one house to the window of the new one.
