Apres

Summer                                                       New (Most Heat) Moon

The day after Sort Toss Pack. Kate’s back in bed and I would be too except for my meeting in St. Paul, America Votes. A weariness after a big push. Feels good though. Trying to get all this done in weeks ahead of a move instead of months would have stressed us both. The result might have been a tainted move. Instead, we’re both feeling accomplished and capable, working on our relocation with adequate time and planning.

We’ve now paid the first bill related to the move and well worth it. We’ll get some of the money back from sales in the Sort Toss Pack consignment shop and Half Price books. We have two nibbles on the lawn tractor and one on the long arm quilter. Next week I’m going to work the phones for the Vectra and the leg press. Getting rid of these big items will free up even more space.

The bedroom feels bare and the workout area, with all six bookcases removed feels generic, like I’ve moved my treadmill and weights to a could-be-anywhere rectangle of sheetrock. Odd to have that sense in our own house.

This is all part of the stripping away process, the peeling back of our Minnesota identity, removing particularity here. That’s necessary in the house as it goes on the market. We want someone else to project their life onto its much emptier spaces, seeing themselves moving through their life with this house as theirs, not ours.

(well, maybe not quite this much, but the feelings are comparable)

Instead of grief at the stuff moved away there is exhilaration. Less stuff. Less need to move stuff. Less need to feel bound to stuff. This is, however, a paring down, not an elimination. There are still objects we want with us, but that number dwindles as we gain the psychic chops necessary to sever connections with belongings.