2016 ETL Summer Tour of Hope - STUFF (Part 1)

Holy moly! Like in the movie, Hello, my name is Doris, I'm noticing on my tour that people and THEIR STUFF continue to have an off balance relationships with each other. Why is that?

A client and her sister are being swallowed alive by trying to merge their separate life times of stuff into one living space! Slowly but surely they just keep plugging away and they're getting things situated. They're very inspiring!

I just received an email from a former tenant who has been trying to get back into the house after several weeks to get a box of stuff that she left. Really? And another tenant still has stuff in the work shed that was supposed to have moved a month ago. It's been hauled from Point A to Point B, C, D and E... and each time not only does it cost money, it costs time and emotions. How secure is it? Whose going to steal it, break it or use it? It's exhausting!

What in the hell is the hold that keeps us attached, worried about and stressed over our stuff? Why do we have this unbalanced relationship with objects! What are we searching for? Why are we willing to spend so much money and energy on stuff? Stuff that will eventually end up in the land fill or someone else's garage. And yet it still holds us hostage.

I hear this story over and over again, "When my parent's died, I threw everything away." I know it was true for me when I settled my dad's estate. He had soooo much STUFF! So much that it was too overwhelming to deal with. So much that while he had paid money for it, I had to pay money to get rid of it!

In 2009 when I left for what became the book A Year in a Suitcase,  I had left everything that I owned in my 22" suitcase at the ranch of one of my daughter's friends, except my backpack that I took with me, while delivering horses to Chicago. On the way home, there was a fire in the area where my suitcase had been left and we weren't allowed back to the ranch for several days. After my original, "OH NO! My suitcase!"f Not even thinking of everything else that was at stake for others. After all... it was MY SUITCASE and it literally held nearly everything that I owned. Finally, I realized that while it held everything that I owned there was nothing that I could remember. That's how important all my stuff was.

My suitcase held all that I owned
 and yet nothing that I could remember!

(To Be Continued)