The Great Purge

The end of the school year brought about the time (and the itch) for me to spring clean. The spring cleaning lasted about two weeks, involved more trash bags than I care to count and resulted in a great deal more breathing room in our little apartment. It wasn't so much trash (I mean, come on, I'm waaaaay too ocd for that), as it was clutter, things I've collected over the school year that I wasn't sure I'd need again and items I've held on to with more purpose, thinking I'd use them in an art project or...something.

I tried to find beauty in my collected items, especially wedding-related items, and made a collage out of the wedding cards we received:



The hubs kind of looked at it with an expression that said, "Really? You're going to hang another collage on the wall?" But, out loud, he complimented it. I am enjoying having these words and images out where I can see them!

Besides, it fits with my new philosophy towards having stuff: If I can't have it out, if I have to bury it in a pile of boxes, then I don't want it anymore.

The same goes for this blog. There are things I have said that I don't want out in the open anymore, mostly rude comments or the harsher of my "rants," and I've taken it upon myself to purge.

I went in with a fairly bad opinion of who I had been in the early days of the blog, but as I read, I realized that my path towards (greater) maturity is actually pretty visible. For now, I've gotten rid of less than 10 posts, and I'm up to January 2006 in my re-reading. I know that means that in the next few hundred posts I read, I'll be in the months leading up to meeting my husband. Having that knowledge in my head has altered my perception of the me I was in the early days. I can now see that I did change and that I had to change in order to be ready to be with him when he came along.

What a gift to be able to retrace my steps and see just about when I became truly ready to give and receive love.

Awww.

But seriously, folks, the power of the purge...I feel so much lighter. I highly recommend it, whether in your writing or your home.