What I'm Learning These Days

Hello.

I apologize for my absence over the past two weeks.  Life and time and stress and obligations have all taken precedence over posting in this forum.  Many wonderful blog ideas have come and gone through my mind during that time - and yet none have made it onto these pages. 

Yes, that is frustrating to me.  But, oh, well.  Those occurrences help my practice of non-attachment, letting go of perfection, realizing I cannot do it all, etc.

This week my husband and I are in Charlotte, North Carolina, visiting my dear friend and blog sister, Gail and her family.  It is a joyous change of pace and scenery.  

With my new mindset of Not Buying It, vacation travel takes on a whole new meaning.  As one who likes to collect *stuff* - travel to new and different places has always been an occasion to acquire more mementos to document the trips and connect with the memories.  Mugs, magnets, postcards, jewelry, posters, t-shirts, books, blah, blah, blah.  An endless array of things exist in various places within my house.  Oddly enough, most of them (or at least the ones I can recall now) are still in the bags in which I brought them home.  The plans I had for them long forgotten.

Of course this is not true of every single thing I've acquired while away, but definitely the majority.  Mugs packed away in tubs in the basement,  ornaments in boxes that are only displayed during the Christmas holidays, books on dusty shelves, postcards and brochures still in the bags, scarves packed away, t-shirts long folded away in the bottom of a drawer, jewelry stuffed in boxes and cloth sacks in a drawer overflowing with watches and earrings and necklaces and bracelets.  On and on and on.

While I love the reminders and the connection these things have to those special places I've been blessed to experience - they are in no way a substitute for the experience itself.  Or the relationships that have been formed along the way.

So...as I travel on this particular journey, I am trying not to buy *stuff*.  I am fighting the urge to acquire or to mark my presence here with trinkets and things that will go home with me - adding pounds to my luggage that must be lugged back through the airport. 

I just want to soak in the essence of BE-ing here.  I want to bask in the sun of friendship and family love and adorable doggy kisses and cool new sights and sounds.  

I want to resist the urge to spend my hard-earned and short supply of money in exchange for another something that will take up space in my home.  Instead I will relax, breathe, step away from the cashier, and let go.  I will listen to the birds, marvel at the azaleas, take photos of the trees, drink the sumptuous tea and enjoy being present in this moment.  

Letting myself deeply experience the NOW of being here - with these dear, special, loving, kind, generous people is by far the richest thing I can acquire.  And, when all else fades away, what will remain in my mind, my cells, my spirit for as long as time goes on.