06/12/2024
Wellness Wednesday - Stuff
I’m back with a Wellness Wednesday post after a short break. I was busy with no other excuse.
As I was thinking about my post for this month, I came across a poem by a favorite author of mine, Mary Oliver. I like her poetry as great words to end a yoga or meditation session with. This poem resonated with me this week since the reason for my recent busyness is due to the selling of our house and purchase of a new one.
It is titled, Storage:
When I moved from
one house to another,
there were many things
I had no room for.
What does one do?
I rented a storage space
and filled it.
Years passed.
Occasionally,
I went there
and looked in,
but nothing happened,
not a single twinge
of the heart.
As I grew older
the things I cared about
grew fewer but were
more important,
so one day I undid the lock
and called the trash man.
He took everything.
I felt like the little donkey
when his burden is finally
lifted.
Things! Burn them, burn them!
Make a beautiful fire!
More room in your heart
for Love, for the trees.
For the birds who own
nothing;
the reason they
can fly.
I have moved several times in the last few years, and each time, as I pack to move out, I purge. Each time, as I unpack to move in, I purge. After all this purging I wonder how it is that I still have so much stuff. More importantly, I wonder why.
I admit that I found a box while preparing for this current move that I had never unpacked from my last move over four years ago. It was loaded with stuff that for some reason I wasn’t able to part with when I packed it, but yet never missed or looked for in that amount of time.
The house we are moving into was most recently inhabited by an older gentleman, who had lost his wife five years prior. We met the daughter of this man, along with her husband and their daughter. They came to clean out the house. They had a dumpster set in the drive to throw away anything they did not wish to keep. I felt sad for them, as they had to sort through their parents’ and grandparents’ belongings.
They each have their own homes now, with their own stuff. I’m sure they will choose one or two items they will keep that will remind them of their lost loved ones. And then the rest of the stuff will either be donated or be placed gently into that large blue dumpster.
Mary Oliver’s poem met me at this time for a reason (and I won’t give credit to AI) along with the scene of the family forced to clean out the house of their loved ones.
As I continue to pack in the next few weeks and unpack in the weeks that follow, I will remember what is important. And what is important does not fit into any sized box or moving truck I may find.
I will end with another poem that came across my feed (ok- maybe it is AI…) by another of my favorite poets, Emily Dickinson:
I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –
Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
FYI- my paradise does not include stuff! Happy Wednesday!
