Prelude to a Garage Sale

Snapshot of A Life

It is amazing how much people accumulate for half a lifetime.

Take us, for example.  We have moved from house to house no fewer than 5 times (once, overseas).  And there were things and possessions that already got left behind – pictures (of friends, old boyfriends – on second thought…), documents that were once deemed important (thesis), favorite clothes (where’s that bridesmaid’s gown? Or my Victoria Secret lingerie that were wedding presents?), favorite jewelry (mom used to have dangling earring made of rhinestones that I loved looking at but maybe it is fake – where did it go?) that sometimes it pains me to think of what had become of them.  And yet, looking at the cavernous heap that I have to sort through now, I am certain that I am left with a whole lot more than I can deal with (or want).

(Hubby and I have embarked on a cleaning spree – him, because he transferred to another office, me, because I was nesting and preparing for the arrival of baby – our first, after 5 years of staying in this house, so you can just imagine the horrors, the horrors!)

Brochures from trips from long ago, magazines, clothes, rotting rose petals, plane tickets, our daughter’s little expressions of art, love letters, little notes and to-do’s, diaries, more clothes, books, CDs, DVDs, shoes, photocopies of notes and reviewers and books that filled one wall of a room, more shoes.

To think we have given some of it away (especially the clothes) here and there.

Pack rats.

Okay. I cannot throw anything away (so it is also a wonder why the things that fell through the cracks fell through the cracks).  I graduated from law school 3 years ago and could not let go of old exam booklets until now.

And not after entertaining some doubts about the wisdom of doing that.

That’s how bad I had it.

But then, I am reminded about my dad who loved to throw things away.   Blink and without a warning, your stuff (that could pass for trash) is gone.  You had to tell him not to throw something or forever hold your peace.  How could he have given life to me, the pack rat?

But after some time of exorcising my ghost (er, old stuff), I found that there is a certain release that goes with throwing things away, because it is also a sort of letting go – of a past, of a memory – kind of making room for other better things, better memories.  Like telling the universe, give me more, because I can take more (look, there is space for more!).

I think I kind of understand my dad now.

And clutter, after all, is not conducive to anything creative or good.

Crumple, throw, release.

And to celebrate the event, tomorrow, a garage sale.

Be rich,

Issa

P.S. Garage sale will be on July 10-11, 2010 (Saturday and Sunday) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2^nd Floor, 1 Isidora Hills, Quezon City (near BF Homes, QC gate and on the 2^nd floor of Metropole).

Article by Issa.  Art by D. Copyright 2010.
website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
email: issa@youwanttoberich.com

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