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For five months, I have been on a liberation journey. Freeing myself, extracting myself ... from extra "things."
In October, it was a Florida garage clean-out after Hurricane Helene ruined a bunch of stuff with her flood waters, forcing a purge.
In November, it was Halloween decorations - those I didn't feel like putting out anymore, saving only the favorites.
In December it was a major Christmas clean-out ... those unused green and red and silvery items. I gave some Halloween and Christmas stuff to the kids, thrilled they want to use these happy holiday memories in their own spaces.
In January, I purged our Maryland home before flying snowbird south. An enormous pile of donations was picked up by VVA / Vietnam Veterans of America. Such a win-win: I get to declutter and their org benefits. Ahhh.
In February, I finally deleted a second facebook account. (Why do I need two?) More to do, more to manage, more to post, more to bog me down. Bye-bye "friends" who were not actually friends. Did the same deletion with another Little Italy facebook page - one somehow passed to me long ago to become a task I didn't want then or now. Liberation.
I also ceased writing and publishing a monthly Little Italy newsletter at the end of 2024. Simply tired of the responsibility. No one paid me to write it for 15 years, ergo, no one could fire me for quitting it. I freed myself.
In February and March, we prepped our Florida home for sale, ready to downsize some responsibility of homeownership. Cleared it out, piled up household donations for the Boley Center and this weekend, U-Hauling some contents home to Maryland. Taking only my favorites, leaving the furniture. Ahhh.
Since Ash Wednesday, I've been on a 40-day Lenten cleanse from social media. Ahhh ... the obligatory duty of reading news, activities, and looking at pics of what people ate for dinner.
Here I sit in my mostly empty Florida house with one more day of living here part-time after 23 years and I feel truly unemotional over it. My kids grew up here ... family and our grandSingys have oft visited. We've hosted a plethora of friends within these sturdy walls holding in extra-special memories of sooo many happy days and people, including my beloved late sister, Paula, and our parents.
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Why don't I feel emotional? Because that's how good this liberation feels from the detachment of "things" - even an extra house. Cleansing, lighter, freer. Next year ... we'll enjoy being carefree non-homeowning renters. Ahhhh.
How about you, snippeteers? What might liberate you?
- A stale relationship?
- A lying spouse?
- A one-way me-me-me friend?
- An obligation you do not enjoy?
- A dead-end job?
- A situation that no longer serves you?
- A toxic person unhealthy for you?
- Too much food?
- Too much alcohol?
- Excess pairs of shoes, clothing, jewelry, stuffed closets?
- Too much staring at your cell phone?
- A task someone delegated to you?
- A break from social media?
One of our snippeteers, Karen, often takes a "digital detox." How appealing! To have enough self-discipline to step away from the phone, the laptop, the iPad, the TV, and other equally dangerous devices for a spell. To just BE.
I think as we gain years, less is more takes on its meaning.
When it's time to let go ... it's time. We feel it. We know it. And it's okay. It is liberation.
What might liberate you?
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