I Finally Get It

I have been making fun of my sister for nearly six years for not actually moving out of my parents house when she got married. She flew halfway across the world, and didn't start to pack until the day before her flight. Until now, I would jeer at the Torah tapes still adorning her old shelf, and snicker at her sneakers still being suspended by the shoe holder in MY former closet. "The only evidence of my ever having grown up in that house, is my ten-speed in the garage," I would mock.

Today, I threw out or prepared for garage sale:

Books I read and re-read to my kids
The toilet training seat
My son's first teddy bear
The Johnson's baby lotion I bought 10 years ago and never used
Half of my daughter's blankies
My daughter's first (size 2) shoes
So many other things I have since blocked out.

When you are doing something you really want to do, but it is still incredibly hard, you tend to procrasinate as long as possible to avoid the pain of not saving those things that you don't need, but really wanted to keep forever.

My sister has since made a lovely life for herself and my brother-in-law in England, but her personalized baby wall-hanging is still hanging upstairs in the light blue room at 294. I have no such convenient spot for storing my unneeded and extraneous stuff. And while our family still pokes fun at my sister, I will envy her.