Things have been pretty quiet in our RV life over the last few months, but there is plenty of activity elsewhere in our lives. We did go to NomadFest in October and had a great time, however, our oldest child got married the next weekend which meant we were distracted and never really processed it for ourselves, much less wrote about it. Our youngest will graduate from college in May, and there is lots of thought and energy going into what he’ll do and where he’ll go after that. Meanwhile, we’re also putting lots of thought and energy into what we will do and where we’ll go after that. Also, we’re making nearly weekly trips to Goodwill, Half Price Books, and/or Habitat For Humanity getting rid of stuff! And to top it all off, we have contractors working around our home taking care of some long-overdue upkeep projects getting the house ready to sell. Gee, maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised that we haven’t updated the blog in awhile. 🙂
Between deciding what to keep, what to sell, and what to give away (and to whom), the downsizing process has obvious challenges. Of course, it can be an emotionally fraught experience, but it’s getting easier all the time to say goodbye to things we’ve hauled around for decades. There is a certain satisfaction in going through a big box of miscellaneous stuff, sorting into Trash/Give/Keep and realizing that there are only 1 or 2 small items that are remotely worth keeping. Sometimes, it’s tempting to just chuck out the whole pile of junk and not worry about those 1 or 2 keepers. But it’s good to resist that urge, as illustrated during a recent sorting session. I’m was going through a box of my mother’s old 
papers, which seemed like nothing but old holiday cards from nobody
special, when I came across two gems. First, there was a high school graduation card to her (from 1947) with a crisp 1934 $5 Silver Certificate (not actually worth much, but cool nonetheless). Second, I found a memory book from my sister’s funeral in 1962, along with some rare photos of her. With things like that turning up, I just can’t be too cavalier about throwing things away.
While taking care of all those other, more mundane, things, we also have running around in the back of our minds thoughts like
- Why are we doing this?
- It’s CRAZY to move into a 350 sq. ft. box on wheels! (Maybe we should get a bigger one!)
- We are quite comfortable where we are, doing what we’re doing – why upset the apple cart?
- Are you SURE?
- It’s SO SCARY!
We try to keep our focus and remember that while change is scary, so is standing still too long. Change is scary, but it’s also exciting, exhilarating, and so enticing! On the other side of our fear of change is the new lifestyle that we have been dreaming of for a long time. On the other side of that fear is what we really want. And besides…
“Maybe it won’t work out, but maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.”
— Unknown
–Roger