Letting Stuff Go
There's a town southeast of Dallas called Waxahachie where we are preparing to move our home and our business. A few people close to us know the story of our progress in that direction - the house was built around 1900 (Victorian Vernacular style) and is slowly becoming a base for "clean-up" operations. Vicki, researching tips on garage sales, found the advice that it's better to have two sales a year than one big blow-out every ten years. How about one every century? We're sorting things from three centuries (19th, 20th and 21st) and a multiple of households into one space. It's a profound lesson on the importance of making decisions.
These pieces have come into our possession through inheritance. The people who owned them before just kept them because they were there. They bought them and never let go of them, in spite of breakage, obsolescence or being out of style. Some pieces were from failed businesses that were never gotten over. Letters, cards, pictures, furniture, bolts, tools, fabric, quilts, boxes of crayons, childrens underwear, even an 1959 Ford Custom. All just kind of wadded up and stuffed away, never used, just kept because someone owned them once and wouldn't release them.
My attorney, after handling a recent probate for us, made the comment that he'd never really thought about all the pieces that people leave unfinished. Someday, someone has to make a decision about all the stuff. And here we are, making decisions on things that have been abandoned, uncompleted, for years. Some of it is unfinished business from the 19th century.
Vicki commented recently with some irony how television mysteries always seem to wind up so nicely once the mystery is solved. Culprit caught, cut to family sitting around hearing the reading of the will next day. It doesn't work like that. Clearing this stuff up takes a lot of time and energy.
My task, my goal this year, is to remove and complete all these messes. Every last unclosed loop that was never closed, I want it closed. Every piece of unfinished business, I want it done.
It's a huge goal which frankly sometimes leaves both of us staring blankly into space. But we are committed that the madness stops here.
Craig Ferguson (late nite TV host) said a few months ago that one of the big changes in him since his father passed away is he's just not willing to put up with people's bullshit the way he used to. The last few years have brought me to a similar place. V shares the mindset too.
There's just so much that people hold onto that, when you really get down to it, it bogs you down and keeps you from moving on. To keep on growing we just have to learn to let it go - let other people have the stuff you don't need. Give it away. Trade for it. Leave it on the curb with a sign that says "please take me". Just let it go. Your life will be better for it and your heirs will be blessed (and they will bless you in return).
These pieces have come into our possession through inheritance. The people who owned them before just kept them because they were there. They bought them and never let go of them, in spite of breakage, obsolescence or being out of style. Some pieces were from failed businesses that were never gotten over. Letters, cards, pictures, furniture, bolts, tools, fabric, quilts, boxes of crayons, childrens underwear, even an 1959 Ford Custom. All just kind of wadded up and stuffed away, never used, just kept because someone owned them once and wouldn't release them.
My attorney, after handling a recent probate for us, made the comment that he'd never really thought about all the pieces that people leave unfinished. Someday, someone has to make a decision about all the stuff. And here we are, making decisions on things that have been abandoned, uncompleted, for years. Some of it is unfinished business from the 19th century.
Vicki commented recently with some irony how television mysteries always seem to wind up so nicely once the mystery is solved. Culprit caught, cut to family sitting around hearing the reading of the will next day. It doesn't work like that. Clearing this stuff up takes a lot of time and energy.
My task, my goal this year, is to remove and complete all these messes. Every last unclosed loop that was never closed, I want it closed. Every piece of unfinished business, I want it done.
It's a huge goal which frankly sometimes leaves both of us staring blankly into space. But we are committed that the madness stops here.
Craig Ferguson (late nite TV host) said a few months ago that one of the big changes in him since his father passed away is he's just not willing to put up with people's bullshit the way he used to. The last few years have brought me to a similar place. V shares the mindset too.
There's just so much that people hold onto that, when you really get down to it, it bogs you down and keeps you from moving on. To keep on growing we just have to learn to let it go - let other people have the stuff you don't need. Give it away. Trade for it. Leave it on the curb with a sign that says "please take me". Just let it go. Your life will be better for it and your heirs will be blessed (and they will bless you in return).
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