Housecoat

I was trying to de-clutter the other day and deciding things to keep vs. things to give away. And when I couldn't decide whether to keep something or not, I was reminded of my mom's housecoat. My mom had a housecoat that she would wear in the mornings while getting us ready to go to school. It snapped up the front, was purple with flowers, and she wore it every day. It smelled like her long after she was gone, and for a long time, it was one of those items that I moved with me from place to place- house to house- college to law school- law school to my first job. I took that housecoat with me everywhere, packed it up over and over again, whether or not it was convenient to move, whether I actually had room for it or not. Until one time I decided it was time to give it away. Until the day I no longer needed the housecoat to remind me of my mom.

I think we hold on to things for fear that losing the item will mean losing the memory. But the thing about remembering is that it is always there for us to reach, in our mind it can never be far away. Sometimes we hold on to things because we don't want to let go of what was, because we don't want to face that the life we once had is over. But it's in the letting go of stuff that we clear out not just our drawers but our soul.

Having items to remind us of times gone past is never a bad thing, until it holds us back. Until we realize that it doesn't take a thing to relive a memory. Until we know that those who have passed will still always be with us . Until we understand that neither time nor distance can erase what we once had, whether we hold on to an object or not.

This is the life.
-a