If I ignore my family, will they go away? Probably not... figures.

I look around me everyday.
What do I see?
I see my children, my husband, the things that make a house a home?

There are THINGS in my house and in my life that seem so important, but as time goes by I can't recall exactly why.

The china tea cup from one of my grandmothers; the bedroom set from the other. A scrap yarn afghan my husband has had for years; odd letters and report cards accumulated over the years for each of the kids.


Are these the sum of the whole? Are they the things that represent US?
Who we are?
Would we still be the people we are without all these things?

These are questions I find myself asking- well, my self- as I clear out the clutter of a lifetime. I think about the memories the things in our lives carry and how, in some cases, cannot be remembered without.

I have thrown out, and given away, more things than I can ever recall, and there are still many more to go.

But, in clearing out the clutter, I have also found many things that are more than just things. They are pieces of our family history, of the people gone but not ever forgotten.

These things I will keep and pass on to my children and grandchildren as they have been passed on to me.

To clutter up their lives... so one day they can sit in the middle of it all and feel the over-whelming responsibility from those who came before... and realize that they too can get out of dealing with it by passing it on!