Travelling Light

I don’t have many possessions these days.  Got it widdled right back to just the stuff I really like or can use.  Sentimentality is taken in small things, literally.  I collect rocks, shells, miniature glass… portable stuff.  Its not to say I don’t have things for a long time. For instance the lamp that lights my desk now is the one I bought for my desk at Staples oh, I don’t know, about 14 years ago. And I still have my first dolly, her face is crazy melty 40 year old plastic but I still love to put my hand inside, work the arms and ask myself animated questions.  I just have less of everything.  I was pained to buy two more cereal bowls recently but admitted that they would be used every day.  That’s the rule, if I can’t use it today I don’t really need it.  Improvisation relieves you of the responsibility of earning the money to buy the specialized thing.  You could use that money to travel, well that’s just my gypsy showing…  I just think that the stuff we accumulate tends to be specialized, just like we have become.  

Our job descriptions are a great example, I was a customer service representative level II once. Maybe if someone else didn’t define your job you could do the aspects you enjoyed and be really good at it.  Instead we cram ourselves into these definitions so we can move up the ladder, because that is what is next, more money, more stuff.   I totally digress.

If you can’t use it right now you don’t really need it.  I am constantly amazed at how I can give something away, that yes I will need next season, and how there one is when I go back looking for it.  How many times do we speak of luck.  What if you made your own luck, by continuing to try? How would you feel lucky if you never risked it?  My security comes from knowing myself, not from the things around me.  Knowing that I am tried and true, reliable, knowing that the answer is always in the question.    Digression once again…

Put half your stuff in storage.  Anyone who has staged their home for sale knows this.  Your place will look better, everyone will say so.  There will be room in the closets and in the cupboards.  Not room for more things, if you really want something you can go shopping at the store of all your favorite stuff, your own storage locker. If it is not your favorite stuff it is time to let it go.   If you might need it, the same chance exists that you may not.  What if you gave away a part of yourself on each of the things you own, how much you is left?

I think I have looked at this idea more than most.  You could only bring what would fit in your car when a hurricane came ashore in Florida.  You sort out what is most important.  I have moved often, culling the heard to fit in someone’s pick up.  I have lived in my van, out of a back pack, off of a motorcycle, examining what should take up crucial space and add weight. I used to get to say that all my stuff fit in my van but I think these 2 new cereal bowls have pushed me over the limit.