When was the last time you looked at your high school annual? I graduated forty years ago. I could care less about those annuals. Do I really need all of my report cards and various memorabilia? The answer is no. I am cutting the tether and getting rid of this stuff so I can simplify my life when I move from this home, and so someone else doesn’t have to deal with it in the future when I have passed. These are my memories, and if they mean nothing to me at this point, why on earth would they mean something to someone else?
But there are those saved things that do mean something, that elicit a warm, fuzzy feeling. What to do about those? Well, some items are going to go away. If I decide I am going to keep something at this point, I picture it tethered to me. I ask myself, is it tether worthy? I must say, this thought makes these decisions rather simple.
I have the intention to move in the next year or so. I have the time to go through my past and clean house like I have never done before. So I am taking the time to look at everything. I am enjoying seeing old photographs, reading old letters and cards from when I was a child, and looking at this and that. I figure since I’ve had these items this long, they deserve one more look. Will I miss having them? No. Will I miss seeing them ever again? I don’t think so.
I see my next phase of life as a more condensed way of living. If I have less, there will be less to maintain less to manage. That sounds good to me. While I may not travel down this same memory lane ever again, I will have plenty of space in my life to create new memories, and new lanes; and I know, the memories of my past are never far behind me.
