Monday, June 17, 2013

Downsizing

As we prepare to make a huge transition - from our house of 26 years to an apartment in a retirement community (one hour westward) - we spend our days sorting, reminiscing, packing, and making endless decisions:  Give away, throw away, or squirrel away?  

Things have been found.  Other things have been found to be lost.  Amazing the possessions one acquires.  Quite a relief, I find, to let so many go.  We've concluded that possessing less enables one to actually know what's there - and where.  (Clear plastic boxes are a godsend in this regard.)

Time is precious now.  More precious than possessions.  Especially precious - given Mr. TheraP's current health concerns - which make him wonder things like:  "How many June 16ths are left to me?"

The ultimate question hangs over everything:  What really matters?

4 comments:

Blue Eyed Ennis said...

Gosh,I wish you well in your changes. It's certainly not easy to cast things off but yes, it does eventually lighten the load in more ways than one. Prayers and blessings for you and Mr. Therap sent your way.

TheraP said...

Blessings upon you, Phil! Thanks so much for stopping by and "connecting".

This morning I "faced" a box of personal papers, going back to college and forward to recently...

It's left me literally "disoriented" - as if time has merged for me. Or selves merged. I had to get up and make myself a cup of tea... simply to establish some connection to the concrete ordinary day. (Lots to go back to - one day. Half of it thrown out. One whole binder still be downsized severely. When my mental balance returns...)

Thank you for grounding me with this concrete comment! :-)

Chris Grande said...

Definitely not easy to downsize;

I think people"s stuff is top 3 concern for most in this position. Sometimes i advise people to simply put it all in storage to decide on later, so that they can downsize without the emotional distraction of what to do with personal items, heirlooms etc

Thanks for a good post!

Chris Grande

TheraP said...

My apologies, Chris, for not checking this email for a while.

Thanks so much for your wise words!

I could tell you a story about an elderly gentleman I gave a ride to (was it last winter?): I saw him standing at a bus stop on a frigid day. We went on a goose chase, trying to find a storage place where he needed to make some payments. He was in his 90's. An elderly black gentleman, who lived in a retirement home, quite far from the storage place.

We had quite an interesting conversation. I doubt he'll ever go through that stuff, that once filled a small house... But keeps paying for the storage nonetheless.

Interesting what you've written, as I came here to put up a post which also relates to downsizing.