I've spent much of the last week or two in the garage, digging out from underneath all the clutter. Of course, it was much easier to stay inside when it was pouring down rain, as it did for so many days in a row.
It is a commonality for people to say they have too much stuff--and the new catch phrase is "right sizing." Our family is no exception. I unearthed belongings still packed after three or four moves. In the end, we had gathered a strange collection of things, a German coin from when my father visited Munich in 1932, mining plans for a gold mine in California that never came to anything, photographs of my grandmother with the King and Queen of Belgium, framed in silver.
That's just the beginning--but now I can let go of a lot that I could not part with before. Starting my new life has made me realize that I do not need to clutch on to these possessions any longer. I need to make room for new stages of life, leaving space for future memories, and a place for a house which will be filled with comings and goings. So too in my writing; I can get rid of the clutter so that I can see what is really there.
I cherish a line from JM Coetzee, "Don't quit before the miracle."
No comments:
Post a Comment