Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Journey of a Pack Rat

For me inanimate objects represent memories of real life. Seeing a certain dress might bring back a fun time with friends. Drinking from a favorite mug and closing my eyes returns me to another place from years ago. With the memory comes feelings and emotions. Cleaning out a closet becomes a dreaded task because of all the memories lying in the piles of threadbare fabrics. The same 3 or 4 items make the cut every time I try to get past my pack rat tendencies. Even our newest project of taking out our old stained carpet and replacing it with fantastic new wood floors is giving me heart palpitations. Each stain and hole represents a family dinner or a beloved pet. The bright pink marker spot was like a thorn in my side reminding me every time I walked past of the time the girls got out of hand with the markers. Seeing the carpet disappear out the door made me realize that I now have no tangible thing to spur that memory or many others. The fresh, perfect wood will surely capture our memories in the future but for the moment it feels like a new member of the family naked as the day it was born.


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