Packing. Again.

May 25th will be our 10th anniversary. Since we’ve been married we have moved 8 times. We are currently packing for our 9th move and this one will be the farthest one of all. That’s right, we have begun to face the daunting task of going through all of our possessions, deciding what we should pack, sell, donate or toss. It’s a little bit crazy, thinking that in a month we are going to pack our belongings on a container that will sail across the sea to our family’s new home.
Going through everything during a move is always a little bit nostalgic for me. It’s inevitable to come across things you haven’t seen in a long time, and I love to take my time remembering the people, places and activities that those things represent.

Jon and I went through our closets this past weekend. It’s pretty shameful, actually, how many clothes we had hanging in the closet—we completely filled up each of our closets. The problem is just that we never sat down and culled through them, so with each move we just kept toting along all the excess—the clothes that were torn, worn out or too small. I finally decided that we were going to take it all out and cut it in half—no mercy! It really turned out to be fun because we reminisced about all the memories over the years.

A t-shirt from the day we started dating. My platform flip-flops that I wore on our wedding day. Ratty old t-shirts that bore paint stains from both of the houses that we’ve completely repainted—together. Memories of so many activities with the youth group at Mayfair. It’s so neat, the story they tell.

It’s not just the clothes, though. Going through the bookshelves. Seeing pictures and albums that have been gathering dust for a while. Reading my baby book. Sorting through drawers that have piles of sweet pictures and drawings from the kids. Things that I am keeping and treasuring because I want to be able to look at them when I’m old and gray and remember these days. I’m thankful God gave us the ability to remember; it really is such a gift.

Packing, again, has been a refreshing walk down memory lane, and it’s calming to me. It's also a reminder that even though things remind me of special times in my life, that things aren't that important. The memories I keep are what mean so much.