The Most Important Things in Life Fit in a Shoe Box

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 my stuff 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 3 items will stay with me at all times, for the rest of my life. Do you get it?

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.

You see, 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 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.

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. My wedding certificate, my U.S. passport, my college degrees, and my birth certificate. Also in order of importance.

That's it. That's the whole list. It turns out that I never needed a big box. I didn't even need a backpack. The most important things in my life, that which I absolutely COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT, based on my own requirements for pile number three-- all fit into one tiny shoebox, with some room to spare.

Think about that the next time you get into a fender-bender or one of your kids knocks over a vase. It's just stuff. 

Stuff. 

And when it all comes down to it, I bet you could fit your most beloved things into a shoebox as well.