How Will You Tell Your Story?

With tax time approaching I needed to "visit" my belongings today. Just about everything I own now resides in a storage locker in Woodsboro, Maryland, including files and papers which I will need to complete my tax filing.

As a searched through the file boxes, I realized how little "stuff" I had to show for  over five decades of living. When I decided to go abroad last year I whittled down my belongings to essentials and those things that I simply could not bear to part with...all totaled, it takes up less than  600 cubic feet , less than the size of an eight by ten room. 

I couldn't help but wonder if that was a good thing  or not. Some religious teachings, Buddhism in particular, stress the importance of not becoming attached to worldly things.  Is it true that the less we possess, the freer our spirits can be? 

I found it very cathartic to pare down my possessions, to get rid of those things that reminded me of bad times and disappointments, to free myself of the shackles of unpleasant memories or just useless articles that neither served a purpose or bought me pleasure...

So what am I left with? Many boxes of holiday decorations, all which tell a story from my children's childhood or my own. The chair where I sat while singing all three of my children to sleep...my grandmother's cookbooks, my mother's kitchenware, many, many photo albums...what I might call the "stuff of life". 

There are no family heirlooms or valuable antiques. But nearly everything packed into that 600 cubic feet tells a story, my own personal story, a story worth remembering! What would you keep to tell your story?

Be well!