So I swear I saw Wilfred Brimley riding a Harley on Lake Shore Drive this afternoon. With a toothpick in his mouth. And an American flag bandana.









Anyway.


So I love how sometimes cleaning the physical can be equal to cleaning the mental and spiritual. A few cases in point:

After my first real-life as-an-adult break-up, I wasted no time gathering all the items she bought me into a plasic container and promptly put it in my storage area. All the things that reminded me of her, of us, of what was supposed to be and what never would be. Out of sight, out of mind for me at that point. And that was good in its own way.

After Mike died, I went through all the things I still had in boxes that I never unpacked, all the stacks of papers and magazines, all the things I had collected over the years. And for the first time, I realized they were nothing more than just "things". And "things" can go away without disrupting life. They can go away if they are weighing you down, keeping you hostage to some memory that, if important enough, will stay with you without some dusty trinket to take you there. "Things" had taken over my life. I wasn't living in the present because I had to be reminded of the past. I couldn't let go of that past because of uncertainty of the future. I was afraid, plain and simple. And I hid behind being a pack-rat by nature as a way to disguise what it was I was really doing.....living in the past.

Sometimes, those faces we once thought we should never let go of need to be released. Sometimes those memories, either painful or wonderful, need to be let to make room for more living, more memories. And sometimes, just sometimes, those that we think are the hardest to release give us the most pleasure once they're gone.

I find myself trying to do more releasing. And Steve is trying now as well. And together, all of this will make sense in the end. All of those things that have a hold on us that we don't quite understand. Some faces. Some words. Some "things". All opening up to a newness that is exciting and fills me with hope.