Packing central here. Movers will be here
before I know it. Today I’m spending time figuring out which personal items to
gather in the boxes that will go with us across country, and which to load onto
the moving van.
How does one decide which photo albums are
the most meaningful, which childhood drawings possess the most value? And
please, is it even possible to sort through my 25+ writing journals? Laughing
as I factor in which one I’d be most horrified if somehow it got tossed from
the moving van and discovered by an innocent bystander. Imagining Joe Shmoe
reading, eyes wide, about a character plotting murder, certain he’s stumbled
upon something truly sinister. (Nope, Joe, just hashing out a novel.) I know
what Joe’s really stumbled upon—a woman who couldn’t possibly sort the can’t-leave-it-behind
important items from all the rest.
In the end, they’re all simply things.
Stuff. Try as I might, I can’t shove memories—a lifetime—into a box. I can toy
with collecting the sentimental, piling in special photographs, letters, and memorabilia,
as well as passports, medical papers, and school forms.
How do you respond when people ask you
what you’d run back in to save if your house was on fire?
I’ve heard pets, photo albums, the Bible,
as well as other poignant books. I’m creating a box of memories and it will
fall short. It will be incomplete. It won’t make sense to most.
Love, nature walks, laughter, ugly cries,
growth, deep and loyal affection—they don’t fit in a box. They exist somewhere
else entirely. They’ll be going with me in the car alright because they’re
stitched into my being—not to be lost or mistakenly read by some Joe Shmoe. The
aforementioned—those are the workings of my life. They go with me everywhere—accessible
at any given time.
*Be back sometime in June…on
the road again.
Satta king
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