Pettifogging

I’ve been busy for the past week.  I haven’t made much progress on the goals of learning or in using my time more wisely though.  Instead, I’ve spent my time letting go.

When my wife and I moved to Scotland, we had a house full of stuff as most people living in America do.  We pared this down to what we thought were the bare essentials and once established here we had them shipped to us.  The boxes filled a room and we realised that we had too much.  The shock of unpacking these boxes and asking ourselves why we kept this or that was stunning.

We pared down and then packed away again.  We reviewed at some point between then and now and pared again.  Last weekend we picked up our stuff from my father-in-law’s to move it into our new flat.  When I arrived at his house and saw how much was left, it was just like before: “What the hell is all of this?”

So this Sunday we pared away for the forth time.  We’re getting rid of at least a quarter of what we have after the previous three cullings, and you know what?  It gets easier and easier and feels better every time.  

Not only do I free up space, I also feel less interested in acquiring things.  The me of today is so far removed from the me of three years ago that I’m extremely curious what the me of three years from now will be like.