PURGING

 "Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions."    

"Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. 

If you have them, you have to take care of them! 

There is great freedom in simplicity of living. 

It is those who have enough but not too much 

who are the happiest."

   - Peace Pilgrim

Well, today is a very different day; I am purging.  I stopped and thought about the word, "purge," and decided this called for a dictionary.com look-up.  The first definition is:  verb meaning "to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable." Okay, well, maybe I am actually cleaning, throwing, giving away and/or storing more than I am purging.  However you want to look at it, my list of things that I/we can live without is growing.

Vaughn has mentioned (quite a number of times, in fact) that it didn't take us long to start acting like "Americans" again after we returned from West Africa.  I am just beginning to understand how true that statement is. Things I thought were necessary while living here in the states are becoming a lot less necessary when I start considering what will go into a storage unit and how big that unit needs to be and how much that will end up costing each month.  Think about it; how valuable does something have to be to have to pay to store it for an indeterminable amount of time?  There are definitely items that will be stored and the monthly charge doesn't matter; things such as scrapbooks and my Precious Moment collectibles.  Other things like 3 trifle bowls, not so much!

So, as I continue writing my list, taking pictures of each item and finally list each item on craigslist for sale, my hope is that other "Americans" think that my items are necessities for living in the states so that I can make some money to take with us to Bolivia to buy those things necessary for life there!

And just a bit of wisdom learned by Tony Shaloub...

"I was one of those people who put too much emphasis
on work and career and material possessions, 

and it took its toll on all my relationships, 

on my physical health, my emotional  
and mental health. "  - Tony Shaloub 

(for any of you who don't know who Tony Shaloub is; 
can there BE such persons?  

He is the man who played the character, 
Adrian Monk from the sitcom, "Monk," 

one of our all-time favorite obsessive compulsives!)

I only hope that I can learn/am learning/will learn 

what Tony has learned.