I think it is absolutely necessary to contemplate our connection and enslavement to the things in our lives. I completely agree that safety has to be felt from inside of ourselves.

In the past year and a half I have gone through marital strife, starting over, and witnessing a crime, all of these things leading me to have to ponder a move quickly and without many of the things I do hold near and dear to my heart.

It makes me ache to contemplate leaving a dark wood chest of drawers behind that I have had since birth, but there have been those times when that would have been necessary all the same. I have found that there are many things I hold near to my heart because of the time they have been with me, the time I have invested in them, or the memories they remind me of.

I have come down to three things I cannot do without: my deceased father's record albums (including original Beatles albums), my cat who has been with me since he was a kitten, and my laptop (it holds my writing). The rest, though I will miss the rest, I will do without if I must. Photographs it would kill me to lose, but I suppose eventually I will find some way to scan them and put them onto CDs and the laptop's hard drive... (A good project for winter, I think!).

Thank you for constantly inspiring me.

Lily

oh keri. thank you.

this has been an ongoing theme for me as of late. the letting go, the abandoning. in the process of looking for more in life, i'm also discovering that this usually means, less in life.

and things find their way to the flea market or the goodwill. sometimes they are put on the side to share, with friends. but everytime i "let go", i find it gives me a sense of feeling lighter, more free. and strangely enough, there's not one thing that i have missed or regretting letting go of yet. and there's still so much more that needs to be sifted thru. but i like to think as well, we make room for the new things, new energy.

sometimes, our material accumulations seem to be the sense of our emotional accumulations. all the things we have yet been able to let go of in the past. all these chapters of our lives will always remain a part of us, shape and mold the individuals we are. but we just have to learn to let go, with open arms and an open heart of open eyes.

my mother once said, there's nothing that truely belongs to us, expect for ourselves and what we hold in our hearts.

you are always an inspiration to read. just something wonderful especially on a sunday like today.

thank you keri.

angela.

I came here by chance.

And I'm glad I did.

Thanks for these inspiring words.

Letting go is the key to embracing life.

Open arms needed.

Not easy.

Hang on, let go...

Oh no!

Out with the old, in with the new.

The only way to hold on to what's true.

Thank you for reminding me.

As always, thank you Keri! So many of us can relate to what you're saying.

I'm another person on the verge of a move. Since it's a return to the US from Central America, I'll have to leave, sell or give away much of my "stuff." Some days I feel excited and free with the possibilities of that...other days I want to cry about "giving up/losing" all I've accumulated.

Starting over is hard.

~Joy

I am in the middle of packing for a move into a new home for my apt, what I call my divorce apt... As I was lamenting over all the stuff I had refused to throw away the last few years, my (new)husband/love said "you were in accumulation mode". Collecting and purging are most likely all very healthy parts of our journey. I ran across journals that I have been keeping for many years. They take up very little space in the big picture. They represent how you became who you are today. I don't reread them but someday my child might,especially if I am not there to express who I am to him in person.

I read your blog after writing in my journal today.

You said:
If my journals were lost or burned, I would still be the same person, having lived the same life. Sometimes I think clinging to the words, needing to document it all is a way of trying desperately to hold onto a moment, to not let it fade away.

This really got me thinking... Why do I keep a journal about all the things going on in my life? Why do I feel the need to record everything?

Would love to hear from other journalers about their motivation.
Thanks,
Kari

I'm trying to pare down all the belongings in my home as well. Anything that I don't *love* or need, I've been putting into a plastic bag. If I don't miss it for a while, it goes to Goodwill for someone else to enjoy. Less clutter for me = a potential treasure for someone else.

Terrific entry

Hi Keri,
I belong to a poetry list and when this came today I thought of you. I enjoy the respite of this "fairy" world and thank-you for it.
Erin

"The World Is A Box"

My heart is a box of affection.
My head is a box of ideas.
My room is a box of protection.
My past is a box full of years.

The future's a box full of after.
An egg is a box full of yolk.
My life is a box full of laughter
And the world is a box full of folk.

-- Sophie Hannah

Kimi,
Yes, I have seen the Triplets of Belville and loved it. And thank you so much for your warm comments. Actually Arno and I are not together anymore, though I'm thinking his correcting my spelling was kind of tongue-in-cheek. Though i'm not entirely sure about that. As you may already know, i do not care too much about spelling. There are much more important things in life to focus on.

k.

hello keri,

i recently watched the animated film “the triplets of belleville” and thought of you (& danny gregory, per your introduction). i think you may enjoy it?

thank you for your courage to share your personal story, your life among so many strangers. you are an inspiration and i thank you for contributing to my life on such a positive level over the past year

by the way, i hope that the "arno" that corrected your spelling of loneliness is not the same arno mentioned as your partner. i know it's none of my beeswax, but that was not nice! journals are a place w/o rules and if you choose to share yours with the world, that gift needs to be respected… not corrected. (that's MY pet peeve arno. ) otherwise arno may be experiencing loneliness in the near future!!!! : )

ps- i'm not posting my email b/c i have found that it must be picked up by 'web crawlers' leading to irritating viagra spam, etc.

coincidence?

I just purged three giant garbage bags full of things at the end of last week. I had spent the whole week going thru everything...

I am at a crossroads right now (new job, divorce) and it felt SO good to rid myself of these things that no longer hold meaning for me or who I am today. I can't believe that I'd actually look at little scraps of this or that and have no idea what they were from or who they were supposed to be reminding me of. Things that i've had around me for years, mind you. Things that i've moved from place to place without a thought.

Sheesh.

I actually feel like doing some more...
but I need more trash bags ;)

i didn't so much purge as i did rearrange things in my place and my head this weekend. i don't have a lot of clutter at my place (my head though is a different matter). this is because every few years i seem to move to a different state or country. so for many years now i have tried living relatively clutter free, or getting rid of things often, so that when it comes time to pack up i don't have that much to do. there are a few things that i take with me everywhere i go. the most important of these are pictures of my family and friends. they are always with me. they are me, i am nothing without them. another object i always take with me is my camera. and whilst i am still me without a camera, i’m not really a happy me. i do think though that while we may not need that teapot, those old journals or that camera to be ourselves, those objects are an extension and a representation of who we are and in a lot of cases we are identifiable and recognisable because of them.

Great thoughts, Keri. I love to read Peace Corps memoirs, they really get down to the marrow of necessity - rather than excess- because of the constant contrasts of American culture and African or South American, or what-have-you...

A few years ago, I actually got rid of some of the journals I had been keeping since my early teen years. I have some even now I am ready to let go of, because they do not represent who I am now. And I honestly know I do not want to be who I was before. It is good to let stuff go.

I wonder if you would like this site about overcoming consumerism:
http://www.verdant.net/anticons.htm

My challenge is that sometimes stuff comes in faster than I can get rid of it. I'll load up my car with items for good will and then the next few weeks will be like christmas -- stuff flowing back into my house from the universe.

I think it's a cosmic joke, reminding me of abundance.

I got a grass stain on my brain.

simplification is good.
this weekend, kye and i cleaned out the basement, and i managed to get rid of my bizarre hippie wear and all of my university notes, which have been tagging along with me from move to move, in tattered boxes. We are trying to pair our life down, and it feels good. my other space eater is greeting cards....i have trouble throwing them away, but it's getting easier.
cheers
r

Last summer I discovered that "things" do not make me. My little girl and I had to move out of our house and into a very tiny apartment. Approximately one half of my possessions had to go. Much of it was junk, duplicate items, or outgrown clothing and toys. Books were the hardest to part with, so I picked all of the books that I could live without and they were given away or sold to used book stores. In our new apartment some favourite books are in one bookcase, and the rest live temporarily in boxes. I find myself relieved by our enormous purge. I don't need so much and because of our small quarters I still feel that I have too much "stuff"! But some of this "stuff" is part of my life here and my history. I cannot part with these things any more than I can part with my memories. Some memories need something to bring it to life! Being a visual person I need to "see" my memories! But I did learn that I can live with less. My daughters and my health and happiness is really what matters.

There's a sweet, inspirational book; Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston that has been really helpful to me (I live in a place much like the boathouse). It's a lovely tool for examining my surroundings, and one of those books I like to pull off the shelf and open at random.
Here's what I opened to just now: "Every aspect of your life is anchored energetically in your living space, so clearing your clutter can completely transform your entire existence."
How about that?! I think you'll dig it.

So glad you are reading King Cat, I thought you might like his work, and he yours.

K

I am in the midst of discovering this.My life seems much lighter and less complicated because of it.