Letting go of the old

Everyone needs a fresh start at some point in their life. The unfortunate thing is that we usually can't choose the timing.

I spent much of my weekend helping a friend and fellow single girl move. It wasn't a planned move. The apartment next door burned, and the smoke and water trashed her bedroom. There were two giant holes in the wall and another in the ceiling. Daylight shined on the mess of drywall and insulation spread across her dresser, bed and the floor. Her home wasn't livable. Her mattress was soaked. Everything smelled like smoke. Each piece of clothing in her closet had to be washed. Since she didn't have much extra money, a small group of friends helped her out.

You have to picture this. It was a regular day. Dishes were still in the kitchen sink. Clothes were still out in her bedroom. Dust had collected. Nothing was packed. And she had a lot of stuff - clothes, nick-knacks, art and craft supplies, and books. Shelves and shelves of books.

I have to confess, I was overwhelmed when I first walked in. All of us were. How could one single girl collect so much stuff? I didn't know where to begin. She sensed our awe and kept saying, "I know I have a lot of stuff; don't judge!" We tossed things in boxes and drove truckloads down the parking lot to her new apartment. I only saw her cry once when her friends told her they had to throw away her drenched, smoke-smelling bed. It wasn't salvageable.

When she started unpacking in her fresh, new place, she admitted she had too much stuff. She told me when I walked in on the third day of the move that she was going to get rid of some books. One of her friends sat her down on the living room floor and brought her box after box to go through and decide what to keep and what to throw away. She did throw things away, and I could tell it was difficult. But a fresh start is on the horizon.

It's always hard to let go of the old, but it's the best way to make room for new.

I'm trying to get rid of things I don't use anymore so I don't accumulate too much stuff. I finally made time between helping with the move to go through my shoes, decide what to keep, put away the summer ones and get the remaining winter ones out of their boxes so I remember to wear them. I had to throw away two pairs. Actually three shoes that had had carried me to some fun, far-away places. One was the black platform heels I broke the heel off trying to pop a balloon a few months ago. I tried for weeks to replace them but here wasn't a pair to be found anywhere. So I ended up with a size larger in the same style. So that unrepairable shoe, which had traveled all over the U.S. with me, danced with me and carried me to parties, meetings, lunches and dinners is in my trash can now.

The other was the most amazing flip flops I've ever owned. They're my gold goddess shoes, and they've carried me around Greece more than once, Mexico, Italy, Yellowstone and countless other places where I've made many memories. It was hard to drop them in the trash. I'll never replace these. I even have the same shoes in silver, but they're just not the same. But I'm sure another pair will find me and carry me through this fresh start and fill me with new memories.

Love to the single girls,
Addison