Then I started going through drawers and cabinets. I found things I'd held onto for years - silly things I simply held onto under the guise of not being "wasteful": oodles of paper clips, old grade books from my teaching days, incense sticks from my college days, old compilation CDs people made for me, endless drawers of scrapbooking and office supplies, coupons I'll never use and old receipts, all dusty and yellowed from time.
Here's the thing about things: they pass through us, coming and going, and ultimately there are very few things in this life that matter. Even things I thought would never lose their meaning have.
At this moment in my life, it feels good to live bare bones, to strip myself of all unnecessary possessions.
When my grandmother died, she didn't leave much to this world by way of material possessions. My family has always lived modestly. But one thing I inherited is a ring that belonged to her. It has a blue topaz centerpiece that is flanked on either side with mother of pearl.
It is a simple ring, probably not worth more than $50, but means so much to me.
It feels cathartic to pare down. Henry David Thoreau said, "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, not a hundred or a thousand."
In the age of smart phones and Google calendars, alarms and bells reminding us of a million things we must do and places we must be, I am abandoning most of it. And couldn't be happier to do so.
In the words of one of my favorite artists, The Be Good Tanyas, keep it light enough to travel!
