Since I had to empty out all the cabinets, the china closet, server, wall units, etc. for the renovations, I got the bug to start paring down.
You don’t realize how much you’ve accumulated over the years until something like this happens, and suddenly you’re faced with the reality of stacks of boxes of “stuff” and stacks upon stacks upon stacks of books. (In our defense, we’re all avid readers and research is a major part of my job, so there’s something of an excuse in there!)
But I have to admit, it was a bit of a weird feeling – you spend the first half of your life acquiring things and building up the makings of your home, then suddenly you find yourself teetering on that peak of the “other side” of life, the side where you move in the opposite direction and “deaccession” things, like museums do from time to time. It’s a weird feeling (I know I’m repeating myself, but it is!).
At first it felt positive, like I was trimming the fat and getting down to fighting weight (pardon the ridiculous cliche), then all of a sudden it felt like I was slowly closing the curtain of my life. I don’t like that feeling and it’s much too soon to feel that way, so I’m focusing on the fact that I really do prefer a simpler existence and am working toward retaining just enough to fit into that diminutive cottage I dream of living in someday.
It’ll take a while to get to that point fully, I know, but I’m working toward it.
Anyway, all psychological assessments aside, DD caught the “clear-out fever” and started going through some of her things. I guess you’re never too young to thin the herd of “stuff” that tends to accumulate.
In doing so, she came across her flute that we had bought for her in middle school. Music is in her blood; she plays lots of instruments (and was a music major at one point in college), but her true musical love was and is the French horn, which she still plays in bands, ensembles, and pit orchestras. When she found her flute during her clear-out, she decided it was the one and only instrument she no longer wanted to keep.
After cleaning it up, she tested it by playing it. This interested Daisy enormously, since she hadn’t heard the flute being played before. She immediately went into Investigation Mode – cautiously at first, then in full-on Daisy Mode.
We’re part of the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop!