Na Clann started it. The youngest two first, with a end of school year purge of clothing. Then the oldest got home after 9 months overseas and she started going through her room and cleaning as well. Suddenly, our house seems to be filled with bags of things ready to go for donation.
I have to confess that I am not immune to this need to move stuff out. I have a rather large bag of clothing to go out as well. And do you know what? I still have as many clothes to wear as I ever had.
This has made me begin to look around and think about other things in my life, which seem to fall into four categories:
1) Things I use regularly
2) Things that have sentimental value
3) Things that I use occasionally but are useful to have when you need them
4) Things that I hold onto which I do not seem to use regularly, have no sentimental value, but are simply there.
Oddly enough, category 2 - items that have sentimental value - often seem the hardest to get rid of. It is easy enough to get rid of a shirt I no longer wear; it is much more difficult to get rid a shirt I no longer wear that was given to me by someone I care about. So I split the difference and try to work around those things.
I am not sure, for myself, what drives me into these waves of getting rid of things. It seems to be driven by factors outside of need to purge myself, factors of what is going on my life in other places: lost friendships, a general need to remove myself more and more from life's flow (and thus, the stuff that makes up life's flow), a general need to fall back from the tyranny of things. So I will go through the urging and purging again, circle the wagons after, and then consider once again what I have - and why I have it.
The tyranny of things! Exactly!!
ReplyDeleteIt is true, Tewshooz! And so difficult to get rid of the things you have already invested in.
ReplyDeleteWhen I have a purge of things it normally indicates a life lesson has been learnt. ....so I go through a challenging time which requires a lot of thinking and readjusting of who I am, which I always get through eventually. But I don't know when I have conquered the challenge and won that particular battle, and this is when the purge of things happen. To me, a purge represents a move forward, a life lesson learnt along the pathway of my life.
ReplyDeleteIt also means a letting go of what is now done with. Vx
Vera, how interesting. I was writing in my journal this morning essentially about the same point, that how letting go of things somehow "feels" as if I have failed. I like the idea of a life lesson. Very applicable and easy to get my mind around.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to be of help. You are someone who has the rare quality of being able to observe themselves from within, therefore you will often feel lost to yourself as you continue to work out the complexities of who you are and where you fit in this world. It is not an easy pathway, this I know from experience. Sending blessings to you. Vx
ReplyDeleteThank you Vera. That is incredibly profound statement that I think is rather worthy of a lot of thought.
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