Loved reading these words - thank you! I'm going through boxes at the moment to be ready for a move of my own, which might never happen, but it feels like an important moment in time to be ready for anything. As you say so beautifully, these random photos and documents don't really tell the stories of the richness of those lives. When I'm gone my kids will have zero interest in this stuff (I think?). And yet it seems wrong to just throw it all out. I have my grandfathers journal from sometime in the late 1920's, for example. Very simple days on the farm, so much slower a pace of life it seems, at least based on his scribblings. I can't decide what to keep, so I'm boxing everything up and sending it all to my brother who seems OK to store it. Kind of a stalling tactic, but I suppose many things i do are:). Anyway, your words touched me today - thank you!
Interesting that this arrives in my inbox today as I was recycling the box that held my Mom's garbage bags. I haven't bought garbage bags for a year and a half as I've been using up the ones I brought from my Mom's place when she moved and then passed on. Today I got to the end of the box and said good-bye to one more thing my Mom had touched (she cut the box so it would be easier for her to get the bags). I know it's a small thing but it's still a thing.
Julia, I appreciate the thoughtful way you frame our lives in a box and call us to step up to live fully💕
Love this, and particularly the tie-in to the current ambiguity. I cut off all my hair today (I’ve been dyeing it since I was 15, almost 40 years ago) and now am grey with a pixie cut. I’m moving to another country in 2 weeks, and framing my next steps as an adventure. Thank you for this. I love the idea of the potential for rising on the thermals.
I found this post really quite inspiring — and I love how your mother's laughter runs a thread, her humour reminding me of my own mother, a very funny woman who was also boxed, like the rest of us. My cardboard box became so soggy that i was able to break free. Thank you 💜 🙏
Beautiful and brave writing here -- and a call to live beautifully and bravely, even when you're the last one standing.
Loved reading these words - thank you! I'm going through boxes at the moment to be ready for a move of my own, which might never happen, but it feels like an important moment in time to be ready for anything. As you say so beautifully, these random photos and documents don't really tell the stories of the richness of those lives. When I'm gone my kids will have zero interest in this stuff (I think?). And yet it seems wrong to just throw it all out. I have my grandfathers journal from sometime in the late 1920's, for example. Very simple days on the farm, so much slower a pace of life it seems, at least based on his scribblings. I can't decide what to keep, so I'm boxing everything up and sending it all to my brother who seems OK to store it. Kind of a stalling tactic, but I suppose many things i do are:). Anyway, your words touched me today - thank you!
In process of selling my house and moving to Italy! we are being pushed over a cliff. And I am too old for this shit.
Damned right.
Once enough of us get outside the box we can have a box-burning party.
Interesting that this arrives in my inbox today as I was recycling the box that held my Mom's garbage bags. I haven't bought garbage bags for a year and a half as I've been using up the ones I brought from my Mom's place when she moved and then passed on. Today I got to the end of the box and said good-bye to one more thing my Mom had touched (she cut the box so it would be easier for her to get the bags). I know it's a small thing but it's still a thing.
Julia, I appreciate the thoughtful way you frame our lives in a box and call us to step up to live fully💕
Love this, and particularly the tie-in to the current ambiguity. I cut off all my hair today (I’ve been dyeing it since I was 15, almost 40 years ago) and now am grey with a pixie cut. I’m moving to another country in 2 weeks, and framing my next steps as an adventure. Thank you for this. I love the idea of the potential for rising on the thermals.
Thank you. 💕 the boxes need to be broken down and popped in the recycle bin.
I found this post really quite inspiring — and I love how your mother's laughter runs a thread, her humour reminding me of my own mother, a very funny woman who was also boxed, like the rest of us. My cardboard box became so soggy that i was able to break free. Thank you 💜 🙏
An excellent read and inspiring for sure—we old timers still rock!
What makes the bird in your chest sing?” what a gorgeous line.
I wish it was mine. I saw it in a book ,credit to Carl Safina.