Moving and Memories - The Unpacking Dilemma

Today is Chickie's moving day. I don't know when her movers are scheduled to arrive, but I guarantee her apartment will look quite empty by the end of the day and she'll be facing wall of boxes to unpack at the new place. Although items are culled out when packing for a move, there are always things that get stuffed into a box and trundled along to the new location that really should have been abandoned or tossed years before. 

Chickie's friend Nancy has paid for the movers to come and
get Chickie and her stuff moved from her apartment
over the river to the new duplex home she bought earlier
this month. 

Life is often like that. An attitude, a memory, a feeling or an opinion is attached to us with firm bonds, but as time goes on, feelings and attitudes change. New information arises, new disappointments happen, and what was true then, may not be true any more. Sometimes old and outdated feelings are tucked into the back corners of your mind, there abandoned and gathering dust and cobwebs. Other times, however, those outdated feelings and opinion are expunged entirely - not easy to do, but sometimes necessary. 

It's never this easy to get rid of bad memories, but
it sure would be nice if it was. Outdated thoughts,
memories and attitudes need to be shown the light
and pushed out of the door sometimes. 

As Chickie begins the process of unpacking her stuff into her new house, she'll rediscover items that she'll look at with surprise. Why did she decide to keep A but discard B? Why did she toss this broken item into a box and move it all the way across the river? Where on earth did she think the four boxes of X were going to go? But even though packing things up can be a total pain, unpacking things can be exciting and, in some cases can be a rediscovery of beloved memories and objects. 

It can be daunting to face a wall of boxes after a move.
You've spent hours and hours getting everything packed,
and now have to turn around and reverse the process.
Moving takes a lot of energy and self-motivation and
that can be really hard sometimes. 

Maybe it's time for all of us to take a few moments of time and look at our dark corners and blocked off memory walls in our minds. Don't do a full cleaning and lighting job, just choose one small corner, one memory, and take it out. Really look at it from all angles. Is it that summer day when you twirled around so many you fell to the ground dizzy and laughing? Maybe, instead of a good memory, it's one of loss or great hurt. All memories have value - we are the sum of our memories. Choose one memory, look it over, examine it with care, acknowledge it, and then, if it merits it, return it to the dark corner or wall that room back up. Not everything should see more than a glimpse of the light of day. 

Not all dark memories need to see the light of day, but
cleaning away the cobwebs before walling them back up
can be a good thing to do. 

Enjoy your weekend. We'll be going through those boxes of old things that DH prepped out for me, and then enjoying the semi-final football games which should both be excellent. I'll be back on Monday.