July 14, 2011
I knew this was going to happen. Randy and the boys went up into the attic and brought down a few boxes of things we had put in storage. Wow, that's a lot of stuff. That was only ONE trip up to the attic. After a few days of bringing down more....well...stuff, we were finished with bringing down all the stuff that was seasonal. This morning, after dropping Cole and Seth off at VBS, Randy and I went to Mom and Dad's to get....you guessed it...more of our stuff. Nothing like experiencing culture shock over your own stuff.
When we were in Mada we moved to a new house the same time my dear Malagasy friend, Helena, her husband and daughter had to move. We had a car full of 6 suitcases and many more bags to take to our new house (for one year). We had asked Helena if she needed help moving. They didn't. They only had one “trunk” and Haja could handle it. Oh. Wow. That's not much stuff.
There was something sad and yet....refreshingly simple, about the thought of having only one trunk full of stuff. Now I know, and I'm trying to remind myself, that America is a different culture and takes different stuff to live in successfully, however, taking time to really think about what stuff I really need is important. And so, to say quite simply, I was embarrassed about how much stuff we have and we will be thinning it out quite a bit in the next few weeks. And you know what? I'm actually excited about getting rid of it. It's less stuff I have to worry about getting lost or ruined.
And so, since I'm in “let's get rid of this stuff” mode, we are going through everything and getting rid of a lot of stuff. Because before we know it, we'll just have more....stuff.
yep. true story. there is a lot to be said for the simplicity of not having stuff to store or care for or protect.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read Richard Foster's "Freedom of Simplicity"? It's excellent! I highly recommend it as it is written about simplifying one's life, but from a perspective that does not come from an over-the-top,-i-just-had-a-mind-blowing-cultural-experience-in-a-poor-country perspective. I've found it helpful to read while living in the first world setting.