Thursday, April 15, 2010

Spring Cleaning

One of the tasks I have given myself this spring is to once again sort through all of my worldly goods and purge. This gets harder and harder each time I do it because I don't have much to begin with. Well, my mom might disagree with that as most of it has been stored in her basement for the last few years. But really, how do you distill a lifetime worth of stuff into just the most important things.

I am a book lover. And as I went through the boxes of books that I had to save nearly four years ago when I packed them, it was a little walk down memory lane. I couldn't help but associate books with different times of my life. I did get rid of a few more that I just don't see my self ever reading again. As I flipped through the pages to take out any bookmarks before they went into the 'get rid of' pile, I found little treasures. Treasures like airplane boarding passes that reaminded me of adventures, notes, receipts, a copy of my grandpa's funeral program.

Then I came to what I like to call my "Love Me" boxes. These are small photo boxes. I have 4 of them. Inside is a collection of cards, letters, notes, old photos and emails.... all from friends and family that showed me love. I tried to go through them last night while watching a movie. Some of them made me laugh out loud. Some of them made me want to cry. But mostly they did what they were meant to do, make me feel loved. My life is rich... with a wealth of friends and family and memories and adventures. How can you discard these things? So in the end I mostly threw away the envelopes of the cards. So after going through 2 boxes I haven't made much of a dent in the purge... but I do feel loved. And have some fantastic photos of friends that might not want them ever to find the light of day again. But you never know... they might just end up on facebook. In love, of course.

I had to include a photo. Here is one of my favorites of my big brother and I at my great grandma's house. Aren't we cute?!

3 comments:

SKKD Lambing said...

It's hard whittling away on worldly possessions, best of luck. I did like 10 trips to Goodwill before we moved and I still have things that I've got to get rid of. Treasure boxes full of Love are the best finds in any purging.

I absoulutely love the picture of you and Shane. I hardly recognize him if not for the look. :-)

Love you

Sodak Girl said...

I love your blog...and I hope there's stuff in your boxes to remind you of how much I love you! (PS You know I also have some pretty fine photos of you and your sibs from years gone by! Someday I'll scan them and make sure you all have a copy.)

Kim said...

I love the pic! And, my Mom is eager for me to empty their storage room too. ARGH! I PAID good money to ship a box of PAPERS and pictures back to the US. Stuff like addreses and cards and stuff I SHOULD have scanned, but...