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.”
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