Tag: stuff

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Letting it go

I really resonate with this today. In fact, I have three bags for the thrift store in the trunk of my car.

Something shifted over the past week and I seem to have reached an inner limit. It’s suddenly not okay to hang on to items that I haven’t touched in years. I’m tired of the space they take up — both physically and in my psyche.

It’s also meant talking back to my inner critic and resisting self-recrimination. It’s meant forgiving myself for thinking I would use something or wear something…and being wrong.

Three bags is barely a start but hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up, a little bit at a time.

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All of a sudden

Not really, but it sort of feels that way!

Our stay here has felt somewhat never-ending; as though we’ve been here forever.

But as usual, everything speeds up as the end draws near. To the point where I find myself amazed that all of a sudden our departure for the coast is the day after tomorrow!

Gathering up all our stuff and restoring order to the house takes some doing; even though we started the process last week, there’s still plenty to do.

But then — Pacific Grove, here we come!

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Yard sale time

We’re having our first Ananda Village yard sale since before the pandemic, and you can tell Village residents ( myself included) have been saving stuff up and are super happy to finally be able to let it all go!

The Village Office has already received so many items that they moved the donations cut-off from this coming Friday to today (Monday).

I managed to get my stuff down there just before the deadline, but then I couldn’t help browsing around to see if there was anything there that we “needed”.

It’s a bit of a paradox really. We go through our closets and drawers to find things to get rid of, but then we turn around and bring more stuff back home with us! As I said to my friend, Patricia, it’s like we get to practice non-attachment by giving stuff away, but then we practice — I’m not sure what; maybe expansion?!? — by collecting more.

The good news is that I took down two bags of clothes; a projector and screen; a rug; and three boxes of miscellaneous items, but I left with only one bag of goodies.

So, I didn’t do too bad.

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Feeling grateful for Kriya

Today started out pretty challenging. Both Ramesha and I got to move through “stuff” — oh, joy!

We worked through it — both individually and together — but there was some lingering residual energy.

So, I’m really grateful for the Kriya initiation tonight, to put things in perspective and remind us what we’re really here for. 📿

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Stuff vs apartment

Most of today I’ve spent wrestling with the reality that we have a very small apartment and too much stuff.

The problem is that too much of the stuff is “meaningful” in some way.

Where we lived when we got it. Who gave it to us. Who we were and what we were doing at the time. So many memories.

And then there are the things that surely can be put to use. The books I’m really going to read. The photos I can’t get rid of until I’ve looked through them one last time.

Argghhh!

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My own personal archeological dig

I spent hours today excavating piles and digging through layers.

There were artifacts dating back to the ancient “high school” era. Other finds were more recent but equally surprising (I found my checks!).

Lots of useless papers were thrown away, but now I have to actually figure out what to do with the stuff I want to keep!

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Letting go

Something has evidently shifted. I spent the entire afternoon sorting through an impressive accumulation of stuff that was stored in our bathroom.

We’ve moved so much (seven or eight times in the past ten years!) that stuff was repeatedly tucked away without having the time (or the bandwidth) to make conscious decisions about what to get rid of and what to keep.

So today, a lot was discarded, quite a bit was set aside be given away, and I reorganized the space to keep those things we actually need.

It felt both freeing and exhausting. Especially in this heat!

I’ve got my eye on a different area of the apartment for tomorrow. Hope to keep the momentum going.

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Stuff

Much of today involved dealing with stuff (especially papers), arguably my least favorite pastime.

Now I’m feeling tired and a little cranky, so I think I’ll keep this short in favor of doing my utmost to get to bed early (the good news is I’ve actually been making positive progress in this direction).