It's just stuff

 I am now 60 some days away from moving to the east coast.  And as one begins to seriously prepare for a move involving over 4000 kilometers, you start to look at the things that furnish your home and your perspective starts to change about 'things'.  How important certain items are to you, what you can or cannot live without, what is worth selling, or just give it away.  Luckily I'm moving in with a man whose house will be somewhat established, and he had a pretty good idea what the ex-wife took. So that makes it a bit easier as to sorting through needs and wants. As every item you look at putting into a trailer, you attach weight to it, because, as my truck driving father wisely told me from the beginning, its not necessarily about how many things you take, its how much it weighs. Because it's the weight that can make or break a load on a trip like this. 

It has also occurred to me that this clearing and packing and deciding how big of a load I'm going to carry out my new life is also rather symbolic of our other types of baggage.
Both of us coming into this marriage are grown adults; we have past relationships, past experiences both good and bad, and have just LIVED life in our own ways for the past 15-20 years.  Now we want to come together and form a cohesive existence and continue to move forward in a positive way of life for ourselves and his daughter.  So how much weight we want to haul with us into this marriage is completely up to us.  We may need to lighten our loads ourselves by forgiving, and letting go of the past, or maybe we need assistance from the Lord through repentance or making amends. Either way, the less unnecessary weight we bring into our marriage, the lighter and easier it will be to move forward.  Now neither of us expected to come to our new life completely unburdened, but we have been open and clear about what we are carrying so that we can help each other.  "(A)nd are willing to bear one another's burdens that they may be light" is a scripture associated with the covenants we as Mormons make at baptism, and I find it especially applicable to marriage. (Mosiah 18:8-10)
So as I am going through my home that has been my sanctuary from the world for the past five years I will be looking at 'things' very carefully and deciding if they will bring goodness and happiness to the next stage of my life, or if it's just gonna be another unnecessary weight in the trailer.

Yeah, the spitfire picture is coming, the piano is not.
Regardless, I'm still gonna need alot of garbage bags and boxes over the next few weeks, so if you have so to donate, feel free to drop them off!
XO Leah