Silver and Gold Memories

Storage units?  Self-storage. Mini-Storage, Moving Storage, Storage bins?  Oh, and I can't leave out the one called Affordable Storage.  Since I don't have an apartment to move my things into I need a place to store my things.  I'm sure before these storage places became available people used someone's garage, basement, attic or barn. 

Downsizing my "things" has forced me to create a new mindset. I wonder if my generation is the first to have so many "things" we require storage space for when we move.  It's an epidemic.  It's pack-rat obesity.  Instead of our clothes getting too small, it's our living space shrinking.  We try to down-size and at the same time indulge in a double-dipped trip to the antique store or an extra large serving of a garage sale.  And every year we ask for a second helping of Christmas gifts by our family gatherings and gift-exchanges.

My friend, Teresa, made a major move before me and gave me some very helpful ideas.  

• Don't get rid of anything you will have to just turn around and buy again.  
• It will be more expensive to purchase new if you really need the item. 
• You can always have fun purchasing antiques once you're moved.  
• Unless they have family history attached to them, or emotional value to you, sell them. 
• Some things you can't buy or find anymore, those are the things you keep.

I've gone through a thousand books.  This was difficult.  I love my books.  Another difficulty was my rocks.  I love them, too.  The choices I had to make for my girls were the hardest. 

I didn't want to be the bad guy if the one possession they loved was the one I threw away or sent to auction.  I thought I would know which items were important to them.  But, not many people understand me when I choose driftwood and rocks over an old rocking chair. So, I can't be expected to know.  It's so personal. 

Many of my sentiments had to be put aside.  I had to do a lot of self-talk to convince myself that, "All sentimental items don't need to kept."  Not that I didn't keep the girls first baby moccasins!  I had to go through a transformation and I'm glad I did.  It freed me from the past and made me focus on the the future.  Since my future has been a limbo, I have to stay tuned into "LESS IS MORE".

On the thirteenth of October my niece Carolyn will exchange vows with her loved one, Mike.  It's cold, rainy, cloudy and our sunlight hours are being secretly stolen away.  She has to focus on the marriage and not on small details that will not matter in 10 years.  The memories made on Saturday will  be long-lasting.  Family from all over are coming to witness her marriage.  It won't be the pressed flower, the wedding dress in the box or the menu that will retain the memory.  It will be the joy, the smiles, the tears.  It will be the couple's voices over the crowd saying, "I do".  It will be the dancing and the toasting that will live in our memories.  None of those sentimental items wrapped in tissue, pressed in a bible, or posted on Facebook will measure up with each person's memory of the day.

She'll never know how thinking about her marriage has helped me clear up

Older Couple Walking Along the
Bosphorus in Moda

some definitions for myself.  "Make new memories and keep the old, some are silver and others are gold."

Thank you, Carolyn.  Happy Wedding Day!