Done Enough

I’ve been going through a seasons-of-life change in my household and my endeavors. I don’t know what it all looks like on the other side yet, but right now it looks like a massive declutter that I’ve decided should more properly be called a purge. As I’m going through everything I have in storage, in my cupboards, in the closets, in the sheds and being ruthless, I’ve struck upon a new durable motto:

“Keep it Fresh“

It means, just like you have to go through the fridge weekly to chuck unused leftovers, and just like you should revisit your wardrobe every changing of the seasons to cull and change over your clothing… you need to go over all your other storage too. Medicine cabinets, supplements, craft supplies, office supplies. Garage tools and supplies. Even books actually age. They aren’t forever. Old boxes of photos deteriorate, discolor. Video tapes break down and stop playing back. data devices become outmoded. Everything, everything needs combed over.

I’ve been actively decluttering on the regular for a decade or more… but now? This is something else. My children have grown, and I have no little ones. All of their old toys and games and bedding are no longer good or of interest. I have to consider how to make space for adult family members for holiday guests. I need to sacrifice my storage spaces to create bedrooms, office spaces, guestrooms, and sitting areas.

It feels like jumping out of one ship and into a new one to commandeer it. It’s not just the stuff I leave behind– it’s a full throated claim over a new period of my life, and I don’t know what this journey looks like yet. It’s exciting, and yet uncertain, watching the old ship disappearing on the horizon.

So it shouldn’t be surprising to me that just as the last season of my life is falling away in terms of my physical stuff, it’s also driving a purge of my creative energies. I often revisit and “refresh” the projects I’m working on multiple times in a year, anyway; but as I chuck my teenage and college notebooks and sketch pads into the recycle bin, I realize the distance I feel from past me is becoming less painful, and opening up space not just in my day to day schedule, but in my heart and mind. I felt like the old half-finished stories and scraps of character notes and junk were weighing me down like barnacles on the hull. It’s time to scrape them off and not worry about what replaces them.

Freedom replaces them.

It’s okay not to lug my old self around everywhere all the time. It’s okay to set that loose and just ride a new wave, and trust that all those past creative explorations remain with me in spirit, but not in twenty pound bankers boxes full of paper.

Here are a few videos about starting over, in the middle. Enjoy!