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Whispers, warmth, and the things that could make life glow. |
This is an oil painting I photographed, then added a watermark and signature so I could share it here. I originally painted it from a photograph of my sister’s bird sometime around 1986 and gave it to her as a Christmas gift. When she passed away, the painting came back to me. Lately, my husband has been cleaning out our storage and brought home a number of my older paintings so I could decide what to keep and what to let go. When my granddaughter asked for this one, I felt an unexpected sense of peace. I’m glad it will stay in the family. Most of the others, though, will be donated. And that got me thinking. What do you do with all the things you collect or inherit over a lifetime? At some point, there’s simply too much stuff. But I’ve realized that what I’m wrestling with isn’t really about things. It’s about memory, grief, time, and the quiet realization that a lifetime gathers more than any one person can carry forward intact. Most of us reach this moment eventually. Sometimes it comes gently. Sometimes it arrives all at once in boxes and bins pulled from storage. Some things are meant to circle back into the family, exactly like this painting did. That isn’t clutter. That’s a story continuing in new hands. Some things are meant to be released. Donating older paintings doesn’t erase the years spent creating them. The act of making them already mattered. Letting them go simply gives them a chance to have a second life somewhere else, with someone who needs them. And some things only need to be remembered, not kept. A photograph, a sentence or two about why they mattered, and then letting the physical object go can be enough. Memory doesn’t live in boxes. It lives in people. And some things… you’re allowed to keep simply because they still speak to you. No justification required. It’s okay to feel relief and sadness at the same time. That’s normal. Letting go isn’t a failure. It’s more like editing, the way a writer does, shaping what carries forward and what quietly closes its chapter. I’ve lived a rich, creative life. Of course there’s too much stuff. It is all a sign that shows how much I have been loved and how much I love.  |
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