Life Renewed

 This past week has been our goodbye tour, visiting all of our favorite haunts, and of course, saying goodbye to our remaining belongings in the house.  The estate sale sold quite a bit, but not nearly enough.  We had to hire a clean-out specialist to take out the rest of all that remained of 38 years of marriage.  Tim handled all of these chores - working with the estate sale folks, as well as the clean-out folks.  I just could not handle it emotionally.  Of the remaining items, one piece of furniture stung particularly to see  rejected by buyers:  The Ethan Allen hutch we bought for our dining room when we were married.  It was such a beautiful piece of furniture, and it was a source of pride that we had such a sturdy, quality piece in our meager newlywed home.  While it's aged in style (dark pine, early American), it is still a really lovely piece of furniture.  And, no one wanted it.  I was crushed, to say the least. Also in the rejected items pile were my Christmas villa

We’re on the final countdown for the estate sale – this Friday and Saturday – and after that, there’s nothing to do but clean up the floors with a good vacuuming and mopping, and then lock the doors.   The closing has been set for July 10 th , so *knock wood* we’ll be done with Brookline, NH for good at that point.   In the meantime, Tim has been meeting with the folks who handle the estate sale while they work on pricing out our belongings.   I can’t handle going back there while this is going on, for previously stated reasons.   I’ve made my peace with my choices on what comes and what goes, so there’s truly nothing to be gained by going back to look over everything.  We said our goodbyes to friends at church this past Sunday.   It’s not nearly as difficult this time as it was when we left St. Paul’s in VT back in 1995.   I’m not certain, but I do think I know why.   We only went to St. Paul’s for a little over 3 years, but it was devastating to leave that little parish.  

After a month of living in our tiny home on wheels, it feels a bit like we've taken Alice's wild ride down the rabbit hole, compressed, compacted, and generally shrunken everything we can now own down to about 1/20 of what has been contained in 2670 square feet (plus the basement and garage).  Even as I continue to go through cabinets, drawers, and closets to ferret out the things that are supposed to go with us, I am still having to decide what we'll need, what we'll use, and what we absolutely cannot justify bringing with us.  That said, I've got until Thursday to make those choices, as the estate sale fellow will be at the house to begin going through everything for sale. Yes, the estate sale.  Where your belongings are priced to sell, people pick through your possessions like produce at a farmer's market, and you realize that your years of collecting, cherishing, and admiring things are nothing more than a moment in time to indulge yourself a bit.  Not tha