Happy Independence Day!
If you’re visiting from Houzz, welcome!
I have been blogging since the olden days (2005). I began to stay in touch with old friends and to get in the habit of daily writing. I couldn’t know this blog would serve as the remaining archive for our family stories. I was never good at keeping scrapbooks but I wrote down what my kids’ said every day of their lives.
When our house was set on fire I lost all my journals, but this blog remains.
Thank you for stopping by.
Thank you for your wonderful articles. This summer my sister’s house burnt down. Reading what you have written has helped me understand. I especially needed to hear about the fear of starting over and rebuilding. I saw that, but didn’t recognize it as a natural response.
I have been going through my files and journals lately. When I read that you lost your journals in which you wrote every day what your kids said, I felt a shock like someone hit me in the chest. I regret how little I wrote of what our children said, despite the fact that I wanted to remember it all. I am so saddened to think that you were so faithful and lost it all. If I lost all my journals, I would be devastated, but, like you, I presume I would survive, somehow, although I can’t imagine.
I think I can learn from you to hold things more loosely, even without a tragedy. Sometimes my husband expresses his thought that all of my files and journals are just extra weight, tying me to the past. Is there any sense of feeling lighter or freer after your loss? You probably feel one thing on some days and another on other days. I’ve been doing a lot of wondering about this since my sister’s house fire.
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I’m so glad these have helped. Unsolicited advice: you could always go back to your sister and say, “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand.” It’s such a strange and unsettling experience. I’ve spoken with others who have lost everything and there seems to be an endless confusion: you may have lost everything but you replace some things and so you forget what you have or had…and then continually remember. And I’m talking banal items like potato mashers and mixing bowls, let alone the really meaningful things.
Losing the journals and anything my kids wrote or made was the hardest. Ultimately I do feel freer. Even things I love, and easily collect, like books, I’m so much more prone to pass on. This is the case with my children too. My husband was always a minimalist.
In the months before the fire I de-cluttered and reorganized my entire house, giving or throwing away anything I didn’t love or need. It’s a peculiar experience to carefully cull all your belongings only to lose them all. Letting go can be so hard, but I’m proof positive you can live without so much. January is minimalism and de-cluttering month on Houzz.com and I’m going to be sharing tips on letting go.
Thank you again for reading and taking the time to comment. It means so much.