Moving Decisions

My beloved and I have decided we ought to move away from our little house in the northeast corner of Vancouver across the Second Narrows Bridge to North Vancouver. As we are in the throes of packing things up to store or sell or give away in order to present our house better for selling, we keep coming across stuff we forgot we had, yes, but especially stuff we haven’t paid much attention to.

And now we have to pay attention.

Some of it is junk we should have thrown away long ago. What were we thinking when we shoved it in the basement or the attic, instead of out in the trash?

Some of it is redundant. Why do we have two, or five, or twenty things of a pretty similar sort when one, or three, or five would do?

Some of it is outmoded. Why did we keep it when fashions have changed, needs have changed, kids have changed, life plans have changed?

And some of it is delightful. Here’s that album Kari kept of our courtship! Here’s that old sweater that meant, and means, so much! Here’s that photo, that book, that game, that scarf, that videotape. Why did we ever lose track of such treasure?

Friends shake their heads in commiseration. “It takes a move,” they all say, “to take stock and make decisions you should have made long before.”

But wouldn’t life have been better this last ten years in this house if we’d taken time regularly, maybe once a year, and once a month, and once a week (Sabbath observance, anyone?) to take stock and make decisions we now have to make hurriedly, tiredly, and focused on moving, rather than on staying and making the best of this place and time?

And, yes, I’m inclined to consider the metaphorical level as well, as doubtless some readers already have.

What else in my life is junk that needs removal? What else is redundant? Outmoded? Or worth rediscovering as treasure?

I’m going to post this now so I can come back and think about it carefully–once the moving is done.