Closing Several Chapters of My Life

There is a certain sadness if not mourning about getting rid of stuff around this house.  It's saying that I am probably not going to need these things again--things that were important at the time.  In some cases, it's recognizing that someone else could use them so why should they sit in our closets or in our basement?

Yesterday I gave a younger friend our Thermos gallon jug.  I carefully wrapped up the remaining pieces of our wedding glassware for the Salvation Army.  I should give away our large picnic cooler and the wicker serving trays.  I'm hoping our daughter will take my mother's silverplate and my aunt's 12 piece china set.  We're not going camping again and we probably won't be hosting any more large parties.

I put the notes from a Math Academy summer course I took in the recyclable bin.  I dumped some--not all--the notes we had from the Snite Museum docent class.  I will bring the books on Family Literacy and Early Childhood Development to the central adult education office and see if anyone wants them.  I parted with piles of reading charts but kept a few along with some books just in case I tutor another beginning reader.

I did not dump the notes I had from teaching math puzzles and games.  Maybe  our grandchildren will do them with me.

My daughter said that Yes, she does want her Barbie and Ken dolls.  My younger son wants his Arthur Clarke books.  The older son said to give him the old videotapes of high school quiz bowl matches and Duke basketball games.  They can decide what to do with the reports and emails and programs I saved for each of them over the years.  I have not received answers yet about the Nancy Drew books and the old laptops.  If I don't hear from them, they are out of here!

One friend was happy to take the postcards I had saved.   Two others took recipe boxes and old cookbooks from my aunt and my mother-in-law.  It makes me happy when someone else can have delight in things instead of my consigning them to the recyclable bin.

And then there are the hundreds of slides we have taken over the years.  I threw out all those that were faded, unrecognizable, or just plain boring.  So many memories especially of the 13 weeks in a pup tent in Europe in 1970 came back even if it was almost 50 years ago!  I know I will never see Rome or Athens or Istanbul or Paris again.

 I am thinking about doing a free book giveaway at church next spring.  I could give a cup and saucer set to several good friends--as a memory of our friendship.  I've already given away two original art works and there are many more that will have to go to good homes.  It's good to be able to do this over a period of time.  It's amazing that I have found things to get rid of every day however for the last month. I wake up in the morning and wonder what it will be today!