STUFF

   Before I moved, I took two years and purged so many things.  My friend Linda helped a great deal.  (I also paid her to clean and do laundry)   First, she took things to a women's shelter.  Then later, she met a lady that sold whatever she found out of her van to make money.  The lady was young and on disability and this was a little supplement money.  Linda said she met her when she saw her waiting on the side of the road and needed gas for her van.  And Linda being Linda, stopped and helped her.  So much of what I gave away went to this woman.  I am sure I could have made a few bucks had I sold things, but I was too tired to worry about that.  It's good to know someone is being helped by my recycling.  Since my energy is so limited, I don't want more "stuff" to clean or think about.  It's easier for me.  But it does something else.  It frees up my mind.  It calms me down.  When my friend Angie was helping me pack, she looked down at a box of glasses and suggested I ask myself if I really wanted them.  I didn't.  If I had my druthers, I would have even less. Linda kept saying, "You're making room for something new."  I did.  A new home.  After I gave Linda the last of everything I could, I realized I gave something away that my mother gave me and I wanted it back.  Linda suggested to call this young lady.  I didn't.  I was heartbroken for a few hours, and then it simply passed.  When I gave Linda my mother's spaghetti bowl, I cried about that too.  It wasn't the original one from when I was a kid, but I still cried.  Then the crying just stopped and I felt fine.  I don't need kitchen utensils at this new place.  So many things were sold or given away to cousins after my mother and father died. Everyone was so appreciative of it all and wanted something to remind them of my mother.  They loved their Aunt Eva.  My friend Lona took a huge and cumbersome hall tree to our friend Jan.  Jan had the perfect place for it.  I got scared that one of my brothers wanted it.  They didn't.  In fact my brother Joe said, "Oh how great someone you know gets it and can use it!"I still have things from my parents. Things with great meaning.  Last week, my cousin Joyce asked if I wanted the love seat and chair that was once my mother's.  It never ends.