Heaven is an empty house. The other members of the household left me home alone yesterday, for a couple of blissful hours, while the girlie went and tried out for the swim team. Other people might use the time to take a nap, or catch up on Desperate Housewives. I embraced the chance for a bit of time to putter around my cellar.
There was a box in a corner, a box of odds and ends that I'd brought home from my mother's house a month or more ago. I emptied it, and put away the odd bits of fabric and paper, a jar full of paper fasteners, a small bone crochet hook. I was about to take the box upstairs, for the recycling bin, when I noticed that it wasn't just a plain white box that 10 reams of copier paper had come in. No, she'd decorated the side of the box, with a collage of paint chips, purples and teals and blues. A bit of matte board, cut to a small rectangle, labeled it "Patterns".
These are the things that rend the heart. This, this box, is a microcosm of her time, her sensibility. Someone else would have scribbled "patterns" with a black Sharpie. Who else would have used the paint chips for découpage?
Now I have a 9" x 17" piece of corrugated cardboard, propped up against the wall by my desk. I can't keep everything. Where do I stop?
Or, where do I start?
8 comments:
I am glad that one of your starting places is stories. I love hearing about your mother.
Things like this...a nice photo would work, no?
Wow.
I don't know.
My family always liked to keep cardboard boxes. So at Christmas we would exchange gifts--and boxes. I still have one my great-Aunt decorated with a picture of a cat, and we still exchange it at Christmas, when we can find something that fits in it.
Janet's way is smarter than mine.
My mother is a hoarder. I know I have the tendencies but still get a thrill out of pitching stuff so figure I am not a goner yet.
With sentimental stuff I keep it, no questions asked. Over time it often feels less sentimental so it's easier to let it go.
Full confession: I still haven't washed the scuff marks off the wall where my German Shepherd used to sleep because every time I try to do it I cry. They aren't very photogenic so I'm not sure how I'm going to get past it. (She died in 2009.)
i think you keep what touches you and brings her closer. you'll know when to let go of things.
Yes, I love Janet's and Susan's idea that this blog is a place to start, with stories and pictures. But oof, I can only imagine how hard it is to think about parting with some of the actual stuff.
Yes. My thought is, frame this and hang it in your craft room?
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