Monday, February 1, 2010

Sickness, Emotions and facing the past...

We had ice. We had snow.
The way everyone was carrying on ... the weather people, the newscasters, the facebook statuses...I fully expected to wake up on Thursday morning, the last Thursday of January, to find that Hell had frozen over.

It hadn't. I was almost disappointed.
We didn't get rain until noon ish. Then it started freezing. Then it started snowing.
I like snow. I'm not such a fan of the ice.
Along with the snow storm, came a cold.
I thought we were done feeling poorly or at least on the mend. It was rather poetic, for the ice to melt and us to feel better.

My brother is getting married...and we're thrilled.
As a gift, I thought I'd paint the bedroom for my niece to be. My brother lives in my parents old home. My niece to be - Princess M - will actually be sleeping in my old room. I knew the room hadn't been painted in a long while.

I know because I painted it. Sigh. Nearly 20 years ago.

In the process of prepping the room for paint, my brother helped me clean it up.
We were faced with the "we can't get rid of that - we might need it."
These thoughts really are rooted in a poverty spirit. Saving junk instead of getting rid of it because we might need it -- and then letting it collect dust and mildew. It's rather an interesting visual picture..

it could preach.

So as we cleaned out that ONE room - and I made several trips to the other rooms, I was struck by how much stuff had been saved. And how much really, truly needed to be tossed away. It was a good thing I stayed there to paint a wall, because if I'd come home then, there's no telling what I might have thrown away.

I'm not one for saving sentimental things. I don't a lot of knick knacks. I don't like them They collect dust.

What I do have, though, are books. Lots and lots of books.

And children who have lots and lots of toys.

And today, I don't feel good.
I'm more tired than normal. I don't know if it's because of painting and trying to rush into activity too fast.
But really, facing the past has given me a glimmer of how the future has changed.

The poverty spirit will not continue through my family line -- and by gum, we'll throw out parts and pieces and not save them. I'm also convinced we should paint. And paint soon.

but not until I feel better.

Otherwise, we might have more boring, maudlin posts like this one - and I'm not sure how much either of us can take.

4 comments:

The Gang's Momma! said...

I ONLY save the sentimental stuff. I am very judicious when deciding what is sentimental. However, complications have arisen when others have tried to decide FOR me what is sentimental and what is not. I do not enjoy THAT at all.

I find it so interesting how The Boss finds VERY LITTLE sentiment in things, but he can hardly get rid of anything. Projects he "might do," things he "might enjoy" taking up again. Ugh. It darn near drives us to the brink every time.

In fact, he offered to clean the attic this weekend FOR me (he was trying to make up for some crappy weekdays . . . bless his heart!) and I had to practically SHOUT that I would prefer that he NOT do it without me.

I only save the stuff that is sentimental to our gang. He only saves the stuff that "might be useful." When there's a draw, I usually win.

:P

Growin' With It said...

i really wrestle with the past in our last move. not sure where it all came from but man has it been a battle. hope you feel better inside and out very soon!

TobyBo said...

feel better soon!

and l love the new blog-do. What a great word!

The Old Gray Mare said...

Hmm, I'd never heard of calling it the "poverty spirit".

We call it the "pack rat gene". LOL

Our basement is stuffed to the rafters with what I call junk, but Mr. T would disagree. He's the type that will pick up a piece of twine from the parking lot & save it. Or save those nylon tie things that hold items in their packaging.

Alas, the gene has passed on to Blondie who saves things like the comics pages from the paper.

Anyway, I hope you feel better soon!