Letting Go of the Past

Boxes, bubble wrap, tape....My mind runs through the checklist of packing items over and over. Moving across a large body of water is not like moving across land. When I left Washington, D.C. to come back to California, I called a moving company who came to my door, loaded up my boxes and met me two weeks later at my apartment in San Francisco.

Hello Matson Shipping Company. I can ship my car across the Pacific. I can also rent out a whole Matson container for a huge amount of money and ship my belongings across the Pacific and meet up with the container three weeks later in Honolulu. Then I find a way to get it all to our new place.

Oh, never mind, Matson.

I love being surrounded by boxes and boxes and piles of stuff. I find photos of places and people from long ago tucked away in the pages of a book. Ticket stubs from shows and concerts I've seen over the years. Cards friends have sent me for various occasions.

We've tried to organize the boxes into three categories; getting donated, going to storage, and shipping to Oahu.

The lowest price we can find to ship a box to Hawaii is for $60. One box doesn't even hold bedding for one queen bed. Never, ever have I been forced to purge myself of my possessions this drastically.

And guess what? IT FEELS GREAT! I've discovered I can let go of the past. Many of my talismans, books, notes, photos, etc. have held me to a place that belongs only in memories. I do not need to relive past events. They are in the past for a reason. Obviously, the past is not needed today.

Hawaii is a chance to start anew. Why would I want to drag the past with me 2,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean?

I don't.

Hawaiians talk about the 'aina, the land, and the spiritual fulfillment they get from it. The universe allows no vacuums. If I release the past, new experiences will come into my life today and tomorrow.

I must go now to organize a Salvation Army pick up, friends coming over for kitchen items, my car being donated, and to purge that which I no longer need.

The lightness feels good.