12 Days Before Take-Off

I woke up from my mid-morning nap and realized that there are only 12 days till we leave.
And I have so much stuff to do.
For starters, mom told us to sort our stuff:
those that we'll take to Canada and those that we'll give away.
Knowing me, that will take me days to do.
so I decided to get on with it.


I decided to make 2 piles:
the stuff I'm sure to take, I place in my bed
the stuff I'll give away, I hang in the closet handle.

But I wasn't just leaving for a vacation.
I'll be migrating to another country,
and we are selling the house.
By the time I get back, this house might not be our's anymore, so I can't just leave things and expect to come back for it in two months.

So it won't be just clothes and toiletries that I'll be sorting and packing. I'll have to take anything and everything that I intend to keep owning.

Because whatever stuff that I'll be leave behind, I might not see again.
As a person, I have trouble letting go of anything.

I've held on to diaries, letters and even movie tickets for years.

So this made me panic a little bit.


What about my books? I can't bring them all.

And my picture collection?
How about my little figurines, old cassette tapes, cd's...
the scraps of jeans that I intended to sew into a skirt...
And my tissue collection?
no one would take them for sure.
My personal treasures would end up as someone else's trash.

The fact of me leaving, is finally sinking in. I actually felt sad.
We'll be leaving the house that I've lived in for 20 something years.
But my mom's friend said:
Don't look at the sadness in the things you'll leave behind,
look for the joy in the things that you will find.