It’s been an eventful couple of months for me; well truth be told, it’s been an eventful couple of years. I’ve gone through separation from my husband, divorce from my ex husband, gained and lost friendships, moved twice, am working on moving for a third time and just recently lost my friend and business partner to heart disease. There have been other things along the way as well, not as momentous but almost just as impactful. It seems once you hit maximum velocity even the smallest grain of sand can cause major damage. Anyway, now I’m in the process of packing up what is left of my life, putting a lot of it into a storage building and keeping out just what I can fit into one bedroom. In the process I have discovered something. I have a lot of extraneous crap! I found myself sorting through pictures I haven’t looked at since the day I picked them up at the photo center, going through clothes I haven’t worn more than once that I thought I so had to have at the time I saw them in the store. I’ve given away almost all of the few belongings I managed to get from the divorce to eliminate bad memories I don’t want to take into my future and you know what? I still have a lot of stuff! As Ariel the little Mermaid once said, “Thing-a-ma-bobs? I’ve got 20!” Well, I have a heck of a lot more than that but you get my drift. Honestly, as I’ve gotten older I’ve often thought about the elders I’ve known in my life who were so quick to give you anything they had, now I know why, they didn’t want to have to deal with it! I think every human being should have to go through this process in their lives once every ten years, it gives you a perspective on life and what is important because in the process you have to give everything you own a value and act on it. Is it valuable enough for me to keep? Is it valuable enough for me to keep with me? Is it valuable enough for me to have to see or work around, run into or step over every day? How is it going to enhance my life or take away from it? Do I want to have to dust that thing, wash that thing, or handle that thing? As you can see the questions you can associate with the value of something can be quite extensive and, quite honestly, annoying! Paring down my life has certainly not been an easy task but one that has been well worth the sweat, agony and struggle it required as it has lightened my mind, broadened my perspective on what is really important to me and made my dusting chore a heck of a lot easier and faster.