Memories & Keepsakes

 “At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.”
- Toni Morrison

A very young (and toothy) me

This week (the whole month really) has flown by. Most of my time has been spent writing lesson plans and trying to keep my temper when nine little kids are flying off the handle. It's been fun, but really time consuming.

I got my Kindle Fire, which is well worth the $199 if you're looking for an e-reader that acts more like a mini laptop then a book. I love the thing and have been plowing through The Hunger Games (I held back jumping on the HG bandwagon until the wagon until everyone else got off. Now there's more room). The other great thing is that I can watch movies on it and, on those nights when the folks are hell bent on a PBS rerun, I can escape to something more stimulating.

The cellar halfway through cleaning

So much dust!

Today I took a break from my Kindle to clean out the cellar, which has been an ongoing battle for about as long as the house has been standing. Today I moved two six foot stacks of Rubbermaid containers only to find that they are almost all marked "memories". In opening them up I was amazed to find not just photographs but random snippets of the past like my old Girl Scout uniform and hand-prints from the first ten years of my life. Toys, report cards, art projects, ski passes; they were all neatly boxed up. While I appreciate the idea of priceless memories, it terrifies me that we've managed to hold onto years worth of stuff which, thanks to the passage of time, is now more difficult to part with. Most of it would be in the burn bin right now, but I think this needs to be a gradual process of taking things out, reminiscing, and then moving on.