Favorite Possessions

Special Project: Questions to answer--- What are your favorite possessions and why?

When I first read this question, I knew immediately what the answer would be.  I have never ever been one to be terribly attached to "things"--" material possessions."

I think the reason for my lack of attachment is the direct result of being a person who has moved countless times.   In that process,  one tends to discard those things that are not particularly treasured.

Prior to moving into this house, our retirement home,  I would say that I always felt transient.   I was transient as a child who lived in a parsonage (house provided by the church) which was not our own.   I was transient in my 20's, married to a military officer, moving frequently.   I was transient in my 30's, as a single parent, renting in a variety of places.  Then, in time, I was transient again, as a clergy who moved a number of times (into houses provided by the church).

In the middle of all those changes in status, there were serious losses.  I left a marriage and left behind possessions.  At one point, when I did live in a small house I bought (as a single mother), along came a flood and damaged beyond repair much of what I had.  Only the solid wooden items survived, which included a piano (from my childhood), and a carved wooden bar.  Most other things ended in the trash heap filled with mud.

Making many moves from place to place is hard on furnishings.  I never had any real quality items until we moved into our current house, when I furnished it with items worthy of our own home.   We did live in our own home for a period of 13 years, between my marriage to Gerry and my entering the ministry.  Those were the child rearing years, which are also hard on furnishings,---at least cheap ones.  We have gone through a whole variety of small couches over the years.  Our current configuration includes couches we bought for our retreat house, and a couch we bought for one of the parsonages we lived in.   A few years ago,  I did buy a full length couch for our current living room.

All of this is background information to get to the point of why I am not too attached to physical possessions.   Since experiencing a flood, and losing many of the photographs from my children's early years, I learned that everything else is replaceable, but not those!  Thankfully, I have accumulated quite a collection of photographs in the thirty plus years since.   So if there were one thing I had to try to save in the event of some great emergency, it would be my photographs.

In the cedar chest in the study, there are also family photographs of relatives from long ago.  I don't really know many of them personally, but I do treasure those which include my parents and grandparents.  There are also papers that include information about my family tree, which I am glad to own.

Now at this stage, in our own lovely retirement home, I love everything  about it.  I love the furniture,  the paintings, the dancing statues, the shrubbery we planted, the flowers, my coffee pot, my comfortable bed, my computer, my Ipad.

But to tell you the truth, deep inside, I still feel transient  (which of course, I am.)