June 11th, 2012: I am editing this post and reposting it as a "public" ActiveRain post, over a year later. The original private posting on ActiveRain was the best way for me to cry out loud, That's it. Unexpectedly, I received more support than you can image from right here in the Rain.
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George Carlin once opined that all Americans are concerned about is getting "more stuff"...about how our lives are consumed with getting "more stuff" at every possible moment.
About a year ago, I moved out of my home. I was moving to a smaller place, so much of my house had to be boxed up and put into storage.
Realizing that I was going to have to part with a lot of my "stuff", I started organizing my life in order of that which was most important to me.
I organized everything into three piles:
1. Stuff that I can take or leave: my KitchenAid mixer, lots of unfinished hobby projects, power tools
2. Stuff that I really need to keep: business files, computer, my bed
3. Stuff that I absolutely cannot live without.
Makes sense, right?
The biggest problem was sorting piles 1 and 2.
Pile three was another story. This was for stuff I just couldn't live without. Pile three was my pry-it-out-of-my-dead-hands pile. No matter what, pile three items will stay with me at all times, for the rest of my life.
Pile three is non-negotiable.
Like many of you reading this, I thought pile three would be the hardest; but turned out to be the easiest.
I had originally given myself one large U-Haul box to hold all of my most precious things. You know, the boxes that stand about 3 feet tall and about 2 feet wide? Come "hell or high water", I was going to get all of my most important stuff from a 2500 square foot house into that one box. It would be tough, but I was determined to figure it out.
It turned out to be much easier than I thought. In fact, I learned a very valuable life lesson that day.
This is what I ended up saving in my "can't live without" pile. In order of importance:
1. My dearly departed wife's ashes. Not the whole urn, but a pocket-sized version for easy totability. I can hold it in my hand easily; it's a little bigger than a roll of quarters.
2. The cards she gave me on every one of our wedding anniversaries-- seven cards total.
3. My favorite picture of her, which is actually attached to this post.
4. My grandmother's crucifix and St. Christopher's medal-- a Catholic powerhouse combination.
5. Paperwork: My marriage certificate, my U.S. passport, my college degrees, and my birth certificate.
That's it. That's my entire "pile three". It turns out that I never needed a big box. I know this sounds corny as all get-out, and I understand that. But I'm not being corny! My mind processed exactly like this: "If I had rags on my body, and nothing more, what could I hold in my hands?"
The most important things in my life, that which I absolutely could not live without, based on my own requirements-- all fit into one tiny shoebox, with some room to spare. A padded, legal-sized envelope would have worked just as well.
And when it all comes down to it, I bet you could fit your most beloved things into a shoebox also.
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