December 20th, 2011

Time to pack!!!
This is a whimsical post because I'm determined to not think about leaving my parents and brothers and church friends in just FIVE days.
Poor Chester (my couch) has become the catwalk for a mountain of clothing and accessories as I waded through my wardrobe this last week. Packing always presents a problem for me. I like to have everything with me, whether in the States or here at home, and it is hard to leave a single item behind. I'm not sure why. I do not think it is normal to have separation withdrawals from a pair of suede pumps or a Calliope tee-shirt. But I cannot escape the sad feeling when I pull something from the "approved" pile and place it neatly folded into the "staying behind" pile. Very sad. =(
Clothes were the first hurdle but not the hardest by any stretch of imagination. Where do all the little things come from that compile mysteriously out of the blue over six months of living some place? A big part of home is familiarity - like the giant words scrawled on my mirror "Faith, Courage, Love," - or the little platter of Italian porcelain that catches all my loose change and yesterday's pair of earrings. These things can't go with me.
Maybe I'm just wildly sentimental? I have a box of every card sent to me. Well, several boxes now. Every time I relocate, I start a new box so that I can keep a tangible memory of the friends I've left behind and that they haven't forgotten me. Now what am I supposed to do with these boxes?? Someday, I imagine, I will make the world's most awesome scrapbook with all the notes and squares of wrinkled paper that represent the people in my life who send me cards. I doubt it will ever be a museum collector item, but it means a lot to ME. =)
Then there are my coffee cups. Oh so funny, this is a story in itself! But I won't digress. The happy little feeling I get from pulling a new mug off the rack and filling it with hot aromatic coffee is tampered by the admission I have a trail of coffee cups from my bedroom all over the house. It's just a tick. I can't stand using the same cup twice and am comfortably accustomed to making a round at night and finding where they all ended up, dumping them in the sink to wash so they are ready to go in the morning. I suppose... I can't take all fifteen mugs with me.... and I will miss them all, I know. I have 3 mugs at school and they hardly fit in my crowded cupboard next to the GrapeNuts box and cans of Spaghettio's. I had a fourth but there is some suspicion in my mind someone stole it to stop the collection from growing out of control. Haha. =)
While I'm sorting through odds and ends and wondering how I manage to get so attached to such silly material things, I come across my Bible with its pretty red cover and gold-tipped pages. Now THAT is something I will be taking with me, in my carryon in fact. People change, and time shifts everything around, and clothes go out of fashion and coffee cups crack (sad face). But the most unmovable part of my life is that knowledge that God lives within me, and loves me, and He's never going to let me go off without him. If the earth were to blow up, and I was being evacuated to Mars, all I'd need was my Bible.
(and my passport, of course)
(and my black leather boots)
(and a picture of my turtles and puppy)
(and that heavenly-soft pearl white blouse)
(and...)
Haha.