Emotional Ties

I've been FREECYCLING again and overall it continues to be a feeling of overwhelming freedom and space.  Why, oh why, haven't I done this before!  Garage sale, charity, garbage hauling, something....  Actually, I've always been pretty good about cleaning closets and such, but if there is room in closet or basement or garage it gets filled pretty quickly.

Today, I cleaned off some items that had a little more sentimental value.  The armoire - inexpensive do it yourself furniture piece from Sam's or some similar big box store.  But we put it together ourselves in our apartment in Nyack NY where we were very happy...we polyeurethaned it til it shone...then when we moved and redecorated in our first place of ownership I did some accent/trim paint to match our new more sophisticated decor.  Tonight it sits in our driveway waiting for a stranger to come and take it away.  It has been in the garage for a few years, collecting grime and spiders, but I'm still a little sad to see it go.

I also cleaned off some chairs that have come to us from various family - a very interesting chair we never found a space for although we loved it's interesting shape and style.

Some old chairs in need of re-caning from a family tie at an Inn undergoing refurbishment.  We had thought to re-cane them and re-finish them ourselves for little corner decorative chairs...or maybe even to put them out in garden as rustic pieces...but we never did find the right place or time, so off they go.

I also gave away five fancy dresses today to a friend's daughter whose school was having a dress drive.  This is a good economic indicator...does your middle class high school need to have charity drives to offset the cost of proms?  Theirs does.  This was probably the toughest give of all.  Because each dress I gave was connected with some special event.

The dress I wore to my brother-in-law's wedding.  In this dress I was photographed dancing with my Dad and it is one of my favorite photos.

The dress I bought when I was at my thinnest point ever and wore only once celebrating a shape I have had only once in my life in my favorite color (at the time) of deep purple.

The dress I wore to my best friend Terry's wedding.  The memories of buying this dress about 2 hours before the wedding are tied to the wonderful experience of watching her marry a wonderful man and enjoying a fabulous evening with good friends.

The dress I wore to my nieces Bat Mitzvah.  All about meeting the glamour expectations of a 13-year old for one of the most important days of her young life.

The dress I wore as Maid of Honor in my cousin's wedding just this past October.  A new beginning and now a bittersweet memory since the site of her wedding reception was shortly thereafter the site of her brother's memorial service.

What I came to realize as I reluctantly cleaned off the armoire and chairs, and bagged up the dresses, is that every one of these are just things.  Things that have lived their useful life with me and can now go on and give pleasure to others.

It is the memories that are precious.