OUR POSSESSIONS PLACE IN OUR LIVES

Our possessions have meaning to us. We keep things for a variety of reasons. Some are useful to us, others have sentimental significance in our lives. Still others have been stored away, because we did not need them immediately but felt we might need them later.

Literally and metaphorically, we all have 'stuff' we bring with us, wherever we go. Some of our baggage is emotional, many more things however, which we may use to define our identity are our material possessions. 

When we go through our possessions, especially in the course of changing our residence, we usually take out everything we own and finally see just how much 'stuff' we have accumulated thus far in our lives.

In the process we are likely to re experience some memories as we remember various occasions in our lives when we added these things to our lives. 

Some of these things we decide to still keep; some we always will, because they are part of our history and identity and represent the place we have established for ourselves in life. Others we have forgotten we even had. Still others no longer hold any value to us.

This sorting through our possessions, becomes a way of taking stock and deciding on which of our stuff still has a place in our lives.

Ultimately, at some point, the place we are leaving begins to look bare and empty except for a large mess of boxes full of our possessions. The place starts to feel strange. Many of the things that gave this place a comfortable feeling are no longer in the place we expect them to be.

I think, at this point, we begin to disassociate ourselves from the place we are leaving, and somehow have become ready to move to a new place.

We also reach a point where we know we can actually 'let go of' a lot of this stuff and become both willing and able to either throw it out or give it away. This is especially true when we see boxes that were never unpacked after the last move.

After the move, we are again overwhelmed because of the quantity of things we possess and which we must now try to find a place for. We face a new challenge; finding a place for our things, and ourselves, in our new environment. 

No matter how well we label our boxes while moving, there is still the problem of finding a 'home' for some of our 'stuff'.  Eventually however, we have unpacked and begin to feel more at home when the familiar things are around us and have made a new place for our possessions.  

Someone I know once said, 'every hour of a move is a year off of your life'. Thinking about this today, I am wondering if in fact, each hour of a move, helps us dispose and discard past baggage and actually help us to make some room in our lives for a lighter and brighter future.