Possessions

In the face of a new adventure that is allowing me to nearly start over again I have been reflecting on possessions. I've quickly been letting go of most of mine. Strangely it has been fairly easy to do and I have been able to successfully reduce my entire worldly possessions down to my 2006 Nissan Sentra, the contents that would fit inside of it, my custom built Planet X Kaffenback bike on the over-the-trunk-rack, and two boxes shipped via UPS. That is all. Everything I own. Well, materially speaking which I have come to recognize this week is really not the important stuff I own at all. Instead, I think our memories and life adventures are far more important possessions. As I was discarding, recycling and donating stuff this past week leading up to the big pack yesterday I would come across items that would jolt a memory of an amazing time I had in my life. And this happened over and over again. I don't really need anything as long as I have my friends, family and good times. Which is precisely why I am moving to the west coast to get back in touch with those things - particularly the friends and family part. Not to say that the offloading of things was entirely easy. There were a few moments where I freaked out wondering if I was being careless with the way I was letting go of stuff. I am taking a sort of leap of faith that I will be able to put a comfortable life back together when I arrive in Seattle. I don't make a fortune and as much as I would love to be Buddha-like with no attachments I will, indeed, need things to make my new apartment livable.  So was it really that smart to sell all of my furniture and donate a shit load more stuff? The air mattress is getting old fast and I know I am going to be itching to get a bed right away upon arrival. And yesterday, when my dad arrived to help me with the move I was at peak stress level as I was playing a game of Tetris with my remaining stuff and the trunk of my car! By the time the process was over I had ended up donating nearly all of my kitchen stuff because it wouldn't fit and it was going to cost as much to ship it as replacing it with new stuff. But it got done and I am pretty proud I did it all by myself with just a tad bit of help from Dad with loading the stuff that needed to go to donation. Bruin (my Boston Terrier) is pretty stoked to be done with the process too as he slept like a baby last night. I think he finally believes he will not be abandoned.
Tomorrow begins the big move west. Herndon, VA to South Bend, IN is the goal. I'll post again tomorrow and keep you all abreast of the happenings of the trip.

PS - I forgot to grab a picture of my empty apartment but here is my sad looking cubicle that I left in DC too.