Travel Trunk

I had no furniture then, and the trunk was given to me when I made the move cross country.  It still safely holds my silk-screens, relics of a previous life.  Having no furniture then was easier than now having to rearrange the mostly useful but eclectic assortment accumulated somewhat on purpose and somewhat by chance. Donating what clutters and crowds gives me lots of exercise, and at day's end  the treacherous hits on my body are more than a memory. But  there's also a felt lightness of being.


So I am relearning  (again) the lesson that gets lost when I'm lazy and too comfortable.  Things in my living space were placed conveniently enough and functional, but now that I've  moved the trunk twice in three days, I am surprisingly pleased and find the new plan the best so far.  And the bookcase also seems so much better in it's new location, making me wonder why it took me so long to move it. But now, overall, a sense of accomplishment animates me, probably because in downsizing I am also beginning to feel a very notable advantage: greater ordering of the "stuff" surrounding me means I will actually find things more easily!   


And I do know that what worked well for me perhaps looked odd to anyone else, especially sticking my bed there by the window, so I have reluctantly moved it. But I love seeing the starry, starry night before I sleep, and hearing rainfalls, and tracking clouds, and feeling gentle breezes and waking to the dawning day. (Sleeping farther from my wonderful windows really is a lamentable deprivation which may indeed become intolerable!) 


Nevertheless,  tossing, shredding and discarding allows some hope of simple order.  (I think it'll also reducing my carbon footprint but don't know exactly how that translates. ) Besides, it would  be a chore to move everything  anywhere else, and extremely embarrassing to think of leaving truckloads of things behind when I die, things of little value to anyone else.  So here's hoping I can keep a forward momentum and then savor the victory of finishing what I've started.  Admittedly, there's more to it than meets the eye (e.g. my garage!) but at least there's a working plan! 


Good chess players may think five steps ahead,  but that's not  easy for someone who only plays checkers.  Nevertheless, the game has begun, and  though I need timeouts to catch my breath, that's mostly to regroup - not to quit. Picture that scene from Arsenic and Old Lace when the Teddy Roosevelt Brewster character rushes up his San Juan Hill (stairs) exclaiming: "Charge!"  It was a crazy scene, but not without purpose, eh? I'm not sure if he was going up or down the stairs.  I think he was going up!  So the travel trunk will stay in it's perfect location (for now) and, for fun, I'm adding that old movie to my Netflix Que!