Time to Simplify

Alright everyone, here's the dealio. For much of the summer, I've been living life on the road. Not the same road I had been on for the past four years - oh no. That road stayed almost entirely in Wisconsin, traveling from top to bottom as I facilitated programming. This road took me from West Virginia to Ohio to Colorado to Montana to California and many places in between. This has been a time of truly living out of a suitcase, often relying only on what I could comfortably fit in the truck, or, more frequently, what I could fit into two checked bags and my carry on. The pinnacle was at the end of the season, as I ended up doing both - driving to a site for several weeks and flying straight from there to another job, living (comfortably) on only what I had with me.

Understandably, by the time I got home, after 6 weeks away, living and working in close quarters with several other people, making due with only what I had with me, I found that the apartment has far too much stuff.  Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by things, and missing the people. As such, I've come to a paradigm shift: I need to simplify.

Drawers and closets full of clothes that are rarely, if ever, worn. Junk drawers (yes, plural) stuffed with stuff that, for whatever reason, I haven't thrown away. Tables, cabinets, desks, drawers, cupboards, and closets packed to the brim with things. Items. Stuff.

Junk.

And so I've decided to get rid of it. Well, most of it anyway. I've realized that to have all these things really hasn't made a difference. It hasn't benefited me, or anyone else to my knowledge, to have this clutter choking my living space. In fact, it's arguably detracting from being, and remaining, content. Stuff begets more stuff, and, quite frankly, I don't really need anymore.  Things get lost and misplaced. Suddenly, we end up with several of the same thing because we couldn't find the original nor many of its replacements.

Admittedly, this has been a challenge from time to time over the last week and half as I fill bags with clothes that are torn, stained, too small, or simply aren't worn anymore; as I toss unnecessary junk; as I go through the volumes of notebooks I've filled with one-time relevant information that is now, and has been, obsolete. I find that I've grown some sort of emotional attachment to many things. Memories come back about when it was used or when I couldn't do without. I think about how much time I've spent with some things, how much time invested in this, that, or the other thing...

And then I realize that I haven't used it in years. I realize that I have no need for so much of it.  I realize, perhaps most importantly, that some things have been outgrown.  That to continue to hold onto them is to reserve space - both physically and mentally - that could, and should, otherwise be taken by whatever comes next.  I have, quite literally, reached an epiphany: out with the old, in with the new.  It is time to close those doors and anticipate those to come.

And I look forward to finding out what that is.