I have a confession to make: I am a nostalgic holder-on of things. I am a saver, a stacker, and a tuck-away-for-a-rainy-day slacker. Every “thing” seems to have a sentimental value, a story or a to-be-determined purpose that awaits that sacred moment where I will finally have the time to use it (like the sewing machine, scrapbook, paint set, photograph collage, yoga video, etc.).
Stuff has become the security fluff that has kept me feeling grounded in past and present – or so I thought. Turns out, stuff was calling my bluff. I am figuring out that past and present are just time zones. Baggage is wasteful in whatever space in your life you stuff it. Sometimes change insists you let go. This weekend, I discovered one of the greatest therapeutic highs for the soul: clearing out crap that fills closets, hallways, garages, and sometimes, even head and heart makes for much less baggage to drag along.
Some of the clutter could be the result of my incessant need to help others, which sometimes causes me to start my clutter in the first place. “Don’t throw that out. So-and-so is collecting those.” Sometimes the stacks of what-nots for the whomever’s makes the stack-of-crap fall over.
Ever conscious of the landfill situation, I am nervous to part with things that may have a purpose. I do my best to recycle what I can. It gives me a weird pleasure, a bizarre satisfaction, if you will, to see my junk find a new life in a new way. Let’s call it consumer karma.
Lucky for me, I found a few fabulous community outlets where my items would find a loving home. May in Wellington County is an awesome time to do some fundamental good for a variety of organizations and I still have a few to cross off my list.
First, I loaded up my car with a child’s mountain bike and drove it to the Grand River Raceway where the Elora United Church added the little bike to the collection of bicycles heading to Africa for its Wheels of Hope program. Some day soon, a young child is going to love that bike again. Amazing.
The Elora Festival Book Sale got all the DVDs I refuse to dust, the CDs we don’t play anymore and a book collection that filled seven bags. Letting go of my novels, the children’s bedtime stories and my university books was like saying goodbye to the last 20 years. Only it hit me that I was making room for new words and ideas to inspire the next twenty years. Bring it on.
I collected electronic gadgets and the whatz-its and bits of stuff that plugs into other stuff for the Green IT Day this weekend at Planet CPU in Fergus. So long old hard drive.
The Carpenter and I were like the terminator team. We were so inspired that we recycled our romantic past. He cashed in a gold necklace given to him by his first serious girlfriend and I sold the promise ring that my first boyfriend gave to me. Yes, that’s right, we cashed in on our first love. It’s interesting what you hold on to and how far you can stuff a memory down into your sock drawer. Recycling those memories was cathartic. It also gave me a Visa payment. Bonus.
What and whom we value in life changes. Recycling actually keeps us moving forward. Change happens. You just have to make room for it.