Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Packing Up Childhood Memories....

My children don't live in Vancouver. Hopefully they will in the future, but right now their lives are in cities that are 13,945 miles apart. (How do I know that you might ask? Well, go to this site and it will tell you the distance between two spots on the earth). Their sojourns are likely temporary- so they have left me with all their beloved toys, books, yearbooks, photos, artwork, certificates and awards and pieces of childhood clothing. A few years ago, I started to put important childhood "stuff" into a container for each child. If I thought something was worth keeping, it went into their container. But - as I needed to clear out their rooms for selling the house, I went into major container-stuffing. The goal was to have bins clearly marked that could stay safely in storage until each child wanted to be reunited with the memories of their childhood.

One rainy weekend in early September I moved about 16 plastic containers into storage. I thought I was being rather brilliant. Their precious childhood items are waiting for them. Had I started earlier, I might have organized the bins, but I just collected stuff from all through the house - if it needed to be preserved for the kids, it went into their respective containers.

The idea that we are moving is sinking in. Slowly, it is sinking in. We will need to construct a new narrative for our lives. You are lucky that you haven't had to listen to all the ideas that have been swirling through my brain (mostly in the middle of the night). The time has come to just jump into the water - take the plunge. We can do it......

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