The beginning...

The house is set and staged for an estate sale. Everything that we own is taped and priced, available to whom ever thinks they need it in their lives. I feel like I should be sad looking around at my life represented by things that are all about to find new homes, but I'm not. I'm not sad to see my vases, my pillows, candlesticks and other accoutrements leaving my life. In all of my fond memories, I cannot think of a single one that would be made worse by lack of a large red vase with fake grass or a striped pillow. We are leaving behind the tangible, taking with us only those precious collected items that we carry with us daily but that cannot be see by anyone else.

This process of stripping down has really shown me that I do not NEED stuff. Sure, I like it, and I want it. I'm pretty sure that will never change. I just cannot imagine a day that I walk by a unique shop and it does not beckon me in. I guess the point is that I think I have let the line of need and want get too blurry. Or, maybe I simply thought of want first and let that be the impetus behind all my buying and acquiring.

Jason and I have decided to change all this. We are packing the things we need on our adventure first; clothes, shoes, soap. With the room left in our bags we will take a few things we want. The want pile is small, comprised of pictures of loved ones, books, a deck of cards and a cribbage board. There is a third pile. This pile is made up of mementos that we cannot get rid of, things that are truly special. In this pile is a box made for me by a friend, handmade cards with incredible sentiments, photos and of course books. Letting go of a book is to me like letting go of a dear friend. Even at that, I only kept the essentials.

To say that we are excited is an understatement. Neither Jason or I can wait to get on the plane to Japan and start anew. We can't wait to live simply, take more time for each other, and immerse ourselves into full discovery mode.

more later - Tawnya

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surgery

I started my period when I was 11 years old.  I remember going to the nurses office at school that day because my lower back hurt so badly.  It felt like nothing I had ever felt before, but was a feeling I would become quite familiar with.  Imagine there being a bowling ball inside your body, resting on your tail bone.  It causes pressure just sitting there.  That was a good day.  The bad days were when that bowling ball was being ground into my back - from the inside trying to find a way out.  Later, when laboring with Lily, that same feeling was there.  Lily was upside down and her head was resting on my tailbone.  The contractions that drove it deeper into the bone were killers.  So all those years of imagining my inner bowling ball were not that far off! In those first few years of cycling I would often seek out the hardest surface I could find and just lay on it, trying to flatten my back into it.  Our living room floor usual...
Read more

$$Tokyo$$

If you google the most expensive cities to live in worldwide you'll find Tokyo somewhere in the top 10.  I looked at a few last night and Tokyo was actually in the top 3 on 5 of the lists.  Now, one list claimed that you'd have to shell out $5,000 to get a 2 bedroom apartment in Tokyo.  I'm sure there are plenty of such apartments, but there are also less expensive ones so you can't believe everything you read. But, it is true.  Living here is very expensive.  We rent an 860 ft2 apartment for approximately $1100 a month.  If we want to rent a parking space that is another $115 a month.  Our utilities, including internet but with no cable, are over $400 a month.  All that for utilities and our apartment does not even have central air or heat!  Groceries, gas, train tickets, they all add up too of course.  Groceries vary in price from store to store and season to season, but it is not uncommon to see 4 apples for $6 or a quart of milk fo...
Read more

Parenting is not for the Timid - This is my Biggest and Worst

Parenting brings obstacles and challenges like none that we've ever dealt with before.  My first was when my son was born.  He was the most difficult baby I'd ever come across, and I got to be with him all the time .  I remember how defeated and discouraged I was, and how I thought to myself, "I can't do this.  I can't parent this child, make him happy, stay sane.  I don't even want to".  I didn't know how I was going to get through his infancy and this obstacle felt like the greatest obstacle of my life. We got through it, I got through it.  Time passed and allowed me to forget the depth of the struggle so that when the next challenge arose, that one felt like a new biggest and worst.  The new challenge was now the thing that was going to end all civilized thought in my head.  Again, we got through.  Time and again, challenges, the biggest and worst, have arisen.  Each time I have thought, "How? What am I supposed to do with this...
Read more