Passing on Blessings

As we have been working on our Lenten Giving Out of our Abundance calendar, I have been reminded ever more how truly blessed I am. I had been ruing--ahead of time--the day when the garage giving comes up. It's $5 if we have a garage; more if we can't fit a car into it because it is so full of other things. Yes, I am able to park my car in a garage here at my apartment building, but I think I have to count it double for the more since I have two storage units!

I already had planned to work with Max for two days during his spring break on the storage units. Today, I made three trips in car to the thrift shop. I took my mother's buffet, Grary's antique Singer treadle sewing machine, my Grandmother Morris' small wardrobe, and one of the barrister bookcases from my in-laws. All of these things have a great deal of sentimental value for me. Mamma was so proud of her buffet from which she could serve hot foods just by opening the top to the heat-proof surface. I sewed a dress on that treadle machine. The wardrobe was in our living room when I was very small. Mamma used to tell how she walked in one day to find little Mochel sitting on top of it. I don't remember how I climbed it. After I got my own bedroom when I was five, that wardrobe was in my room as my dresser. Jeff's parents passed the books cases on to us as newlyweds.

So, a lot of sentimental value went through my car today. You might ask why I let them go. I am trying to downsize, but I am also trying to let go of things--not memories, but things for which I don't have a use anymore, but someone else could make good use of them. Two weeks ago, when we moved to the smaller apartment across the hall, I finally gave away my father's golf jackets. He died in 1992, but I held on to them for over twenty-three years. I gave away all of Jeff's jackets I still had, as well. I did keep his traveling vest into which he had me add inside pockets.

I have a strong feeling that I need to travel light in this phase of my life. My roots need to be in God, and also in place and people, not in possessions. So I offer a blessing to whomever these pieces of furniture will touch, and the new memories they will engender in lives of people I do not know.

Luke 12:20-21

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”