Downsizing?

“Remember, it's OK to get what you want from life.”

~ Stuart Wilde

As the work has progressed on our family living space

it has become abundantly obvious that over the past 3 decades we have accumulated a lot of stuff.

Furniture, chackies,papers and stuff.

So much stuff that a good deal of time is spent each day we are working here either moving stuff, climbing over stuff, tripping over stuff or covering over stuff.

It has become clear to me that it is time to start getting rid of stuff.

I often hear the seniors on my bus talking about this problem.

Many of them have moved into smaller space, either from their homes into an apartment or from their apartments into a senior living facility.

Each and everyone of them faces the same challenge.

They have all accumulated stuff.

Decades and decades of stuff.

So they downsize.

Often I hear:

"Who needs all of this stuff?

"Why did I save all of this stuff?"

"What am I going to do with this stuff?"

"I have no room for this stuff!"

Arnie and Vivian's first born may not have been born a genius, however he isn't a dummy either.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it's time for me to start getting rid of stuff.

However, unlike the case of my seniors, for me it is less about downsizing and more about making room for what will come next.

The seniors all seem to be winding up the final chapters of their stories.

I,on the other hand, feel like I am getting started on the next chapter which is the gateway to my next adventure.

Downsizing feels like minimizing.

What I am engaged in is creating clear space for maximizing.

Big difference!

They all speak of winding down.

I am excited about ramping up.

There are similarities in both scenarios.

There is the whole letting go thing.

(it's tough sometimes!)

Every piece of bric a brac has a story, a memory.

Still, most of this stuff has to get tossed to make room for new memories.

The other day, while in the middle of one of these purges, I rolled up our dinig room rug and tossed it into the dumpster.

This rug sat under our dining room table and was Loki's favorite spot to be.

Loki is gone almost 2 years now.

Still I had been unable to part with this memory.

That was until last Wednesday .

OUT!

Painful as it was, it was time.

There is a delicate balance between the pain of loss and the excitement of new possibilities.

I am experiencing both.

It's the Yin Yang of life.

And I'm really okay with that.