Bubble Wrap and Moving Reminders
Of all the moves we have made in 40 + years, one of the best innovations for moving is bubble wrap. Clean, expensive, and better than old newspapers, it has enabled me to move our treasures and chotskies with a 90% chance of no breakage. I just wish I could wrap up all the wonderful people we have met down here and ship them north and east!
Since I can’t, I’ll keep sorting stuff and packing. But some stuff is beyond valuable and hard to box.
Packing up – sorting – is both a good thing and a hard thing. I have a propensity to be a hoarder. Too often in the past I have accepted gladly other folks’ cast offs when they downsized, saving stuff because who knows when (fill-in-the blank) will come in handy?
Frankly, the things that have been the most usable assets are an ancient jar opener from my parents’ first home, and the stainless pots and lids from my mother-in-law’s last home. I doubt either my mother or mother-in-law would have thought these items would be the daily reminders of themselves.
But there it is . . . what we use most, we remember best.
Yes, we have inherited way more than a few kitchen tools, but each time I use the opener or the pots I think of little life-lessons Mildred and Elizabeth modeled. Both taught the same lessons in their unique ways:
- Forbearance in good times, and not so good;
- Restraint and kindness when criticism was warranted;
- Generosity over and above what was necessary.
- Trust in God.
I am not sure what if any of the boxes of bubble-wrapped junk, memorabilia, and other stuff our kids will want – these are different times requiring different daily-living tools. But a jar opener, old and cranky that it is, and some sturdy stainless pots with lids may well still be useful. I know they remind me of their grandmothers who taught lessons that are so valuable and hard to box.
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. ~Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, c.1420
God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me. ~Author unknown, variation of an excerpt from “The Serenity Prayer” by Reinhold Neibuhr