The things we keep

THIS IS IT!  Christmas came and went, the grad school semester has ended, including but not limited too an 18-page paper on the place for connection to objects in Philadelphia, and I have a full work-week off!  My time this week will be devoted to a) putting Christmas away, b) putting everything else away, c) decorating with 'generic winter' decorations, and d) getting the second floor of my house back to a functioning space.  After all of this, I will have a clean house, a fridge stocked with holiday leftovers, a space for yoga and small workouts (much needed after last weekend!), and a studio space to make items at my leisure, which is required so that making is not a stress.

This blog is about my experience getting back on my feet, as a maker, after my house flooded in May of 2015.  My outlook has been different since moving back into my house this year.  Out of the flood came a small piece of adulthood I had not known I was missing, and I think some adults never get.  People become attached to objects.  You might just love something because its pretty.  You might feel a sentimental connection to your childhood, or another person.  The feeling may be so strong with some objects that it is the closest thing to having that person sit right there.  These moments come and they go.  It is healthy to have a few items of sentiment, but you cannot keep everything.  These things we hold onto...are just things.  You'll be OK if they break.  You will come out unscathed if you pass them along.  You will not forget them if they go missing.

This little piece of growing up that I experienced as a 28-year-old was a gap in time.  The items I had before the flood were packed in boxes and moved to a POD and trailer in my driveway, nearly inaccessible (below).  Some items were sent to be repaired and held at the repair locations.  A year passed, and I didn't need those things.  I healed from the initial shock, and when the objects came back, I realized that the space they left was more valuable than the objects themselves.  It was a space for oxygen, and a rest for my eyes.  My house, my grandparents' house, is my object of sentiment.  I don't need to keep everything in it.

This was my personal lesson, and every person is different.  But with the new year approaching, so does the great purge and spring clean-up.  So I wanted to share this experience with you to help.  I by no means have an empty house, and I still struggle with trying to get rid of some things, but I do question objects on a daily basis...Why do I keep you?  And as a maker of objects, it challenges my whole purpose, but it is precious things we must keep.  Things that serve us joy.  Life is too short to be carrying more than you need to, or want to.  If the object doesn't weigh you down, and it gives you happiness, then keep it, and care for it.

This is a constant balancing scale: keep it, throw it out, give it away.  But since my recent events, I can say that it's easier to let go.  Now, I better get started on what I set out to do at the start of this post while I'm still in this mindset!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, everyone!