How important are your things?

[dragonflyinthesky]

[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]This is an excerpt from my newest blog post titled "How important are your things when you die?" You may need to go to the blog in order to open the video. I wrote this humorous post to give encouragement to others that are considering this wonderful journey.  [/font]blog link  


[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][font=Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif]How important are your things when you die?[/font]
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[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][font=Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif]I have so many people interested in this  life I've chosen to lead. Many are older women like me and women that are just plain tired of their lives or being a caretaker of their house and other people. This is not an easy thing to do. 

It may start out as a little thought, "Gee wouldn't it be fun to just give it all up, get rid of everything and sell my house and buy a camper and travel? Then after a few years you start obsessing and wondering what freedom might feel like. You think you spend to much time mowing the lawn and the effin' grass grows so fast and the neighbor who has a husband to do the yard work smiles at you and sweetly asks what kind of weeds are growing in my grass.

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You suddenly have an epiphany when your pampered neighbor who's holding her age better than you because she doesn't have to do everything herself also innocently asks you where your recycle container is.  You think, that you don't want to do it all anymore and you are too tired to separate your effing' trash just to please your neighbor.

You finally put two and two together and know that you are supporting a house you don't need anymore now that the kids are grown. You think, my God, I'm a slave to this house and the power company and everyone else just so I have a place to keep my things. 


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 All of a sudden you start to think about your things and you start to consider what your kids will do with your things if you die. Then you realize your treasures are just things your kids will set out at a big estate sale and sell them for a few bucks each and little grubby kids that come with their moms to the sale will be putting their hands all over your nice furniture and then one of your kids says, "Yeah, a dollar will work for those old dog statues"  and you are rolling over in your grave again screaming those are antique Staffordshire Spaniels, I raised you better than this!






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 It won't matter though because you will be in a "better place" and never did travel and write your romance novel or sit and watch the sunrise on a beach or the sunset in a desert in New Mexico because you were to busy being a responsible adult and you didn't take care of yourself or experience life because it was to hard to get rid of everything and you like your things and it's a scary world out there and a woman should never travel alone because that's what everyone says.

I will save how to get started doing this for another post. I will say it's a lot more psychological than physical and it's not easy. To me though, it saved my life and soul. I don't know how long I will travel like this, as it stands now, I have lots more things to do and see and experience.


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I have a little video I made of where I am now. I'm real easy to please and I enjoy simple things, even cows with flies, so please, enjoy my  video and cow picture. After you see the video you will see that the pictures with this post aren't  random. The video is below.


Click here to see where I'm living and a good little pep talk

The camera is not my friend, hasn't been since the 90's. I'm really good looking and not butt ugly as the video portrays me. I'm really beautiful for my age and must admit to being a legend in my own mind.[/font]
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[Queen]

Love the mindset, we did everything we were "supposed to do", now what. Well, now it's time for us!

 

[Free Range Chicken]

I enjoyed your post a lot, thanks! ! It's inspiring!!!

 

[cyndi]

I gave the crap away and my son took what he wanted. I still have a couple of things that need to find a good home. It's a glorious feeling to be free of all that.

great post

 

[bigsallysmom]

Awesome outdoor setup and the artwork on your travel trailer exterior.

 

[mockturtle]

I've never been particularly attached to things.

 

[NomadMike]

Very good post, i have been selling off a lot of our possesions lately, and i dont miss them at all.

 

[my_vantasy]

Bravo, Sister Ohioan! Very well said and recorded.

 

[highdesertranger]

com'on you are not butt ugly, now those cows butts that a different story. haha. great thread. highdesertranger

 

[cyndi]

Love the video, Diane. Great advice.

 

[rvwandering]

Great post! Now I have to find some WiFi so that I can watch the video.

 

[MikeRuth]

I'm with HDR on that, and you have a sense of happiness in your voice. Heard it your first sentence.

Have a great weekend.

 

[Theadyn]

Great post, and great reminder that our things are just 'stuff'. Thank you!!

 

[compassrose]

Try losing just about everything you own, except your life, those of your spouse and children and the lives of your pets in a fire and it will give you a much different perspective on "stuff".

To be honest, I read the pain that people have in giving up "stuff". I do have to shake my head. I have to admit, I do have some "stuff" that was built into my bus so I could keep it. Things like the cedar chest that David made me for my wedding present has always meant a lot to me. Since his passing, I would simply refuse to part with it. Not now. Not for a while. Maybe never.

"Stuff" is a very personal and private thing. I read others saying "get rid of it all". They have no business in saying that. "Stuff" can be kept. You just have to learn to own it, not let it own you. Some folks can't do that and chose to get rid of it all. Sometimes that makes them happy, sometimes it makes them angry. I've noticed they tend to be the ones who get the nastiest about telling others to get rid of their stuff. Sorta like spread the unhappiness around. Others will store it for a while (which pisses off the "get rid of it all"crowd). If you can afford to, then keep it for a while until it no longer has a hold on you. There is no need to get rid of a thing that brings you joy. Find a place to put it in your new home. That may take a few months or years as you sort and dispose of things that you thought you needed but turns out you really didn't.

I find it interesting that some folks can sit and tell family, friends and strangers that they want this type of lifestyle despite what their loved ones may say about their choice but can't tell the folks online, doing the same lifestyle they are doing, to shut up and butt out.

Everyone is different, with different needs and different wants. There is no one way to do this. Lighten up, take control of your own life by taking the time to learn your self, your needs and your wants. You may be surprised that, as time goes by, they are not what you think they are. Life is fun, if you let it be.

 

[Canine]

Love that camper!

 

[Canine]

Is "Homophobia" a fear of owning a home?

 

[Queen]

Is "Homophobia" a fear of owning a home?

I think it's the fear of having your home decorated fabulously.

 

[Canine]

Maybe the fear of going home?had a few of those in my time.

 

[cyndi]

A couple of posts have been deleted.

The subject of this post is: RE: How important are your things?

As always, feel free to start a new thread on another subject

I'm on a roll this morning

 

[Almost There]

There's only a few things that are really important to me. My pottery collection and my antique crystal stemware are in that category. I only hope that when they get passed down to my youngest son that he appreciates them, if not, then I'll not be around to notice...

But there's a bunch of things that I figure that in the future I'll need again, those I'm keeping. Everything in that category is weighed on the basis of how much it would cost me to replace. I've invested in a lot of fairly expensive kitchen stuff that I'm definitely keeping.

I'm fortunate in that I already own a cargo trailer and have had more than one offer of a place to store the trailer while I travel. It could be packed with a whole lot more than what I'm keeping but there's no point in keeping something like the elcheapo bookcases I bought when I moved in here 8 years ago with absolutely no furniture to my name. Most of the other larger pieces were either bought used or given to me. I'm attached to none of them so out they go.

Some day in the future I will be making the trek across the continent and relocating in BC. Until that time the cargo trailer will make a good storage unit for me.

Now if I could only find the end of the shredding of paperwork accumulated from running my office from home for 7 years I'd be really happy...   I can't list the filing cabinets on Kijiji until they're empty..