Happy Hoarder Day # 7 Throwing My Life Away Feb. 21, 2015

  Happy Hoarder  Day # 7 Throwing My Life Away Feb. 21, 2015
 A journey into cleaning up a big pile of..... hoard
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(photos still in the cloud - will post as soon as they arrive!)

                                                   

                              Throwing My Life Away

                                             

                                                            by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

One week.

God made the whole world in six days, then rested.  But he didn't have to get rid of any clutter.

In one week of my official starting to de-clutter, I have gotten quite a distance - both forward and backwards.  I have rid myself of over 25 pieces of clothing - most today, with the help of my dear friend, Yvonne.  Yvonne is also known as 'evil' Yvonne - she laughs at me and gets me to get organized, and I am forever in debt to her for her wisdom, kindness and stamina.  It is she who often gets me to finish another pile, so the area worked on  looks finished instead of merely a bit better.

And her laughter makes the dreariness of discarding a bit more livable.  For she understands that I have bizarre attachments to strange things.  And she lives in a much smaller place than I do, so I feel horribly guilty when I complain about having to whittle down my pink tank tops from 27 to only 20 in an effort to have them all fit in one drawer.   (Okay, 27 was a bit odd....the real number was different.....it was......32!  I just love the pink blouses!  And the stain level system failed me miserably- see Day# 1)

Yvonne was not the only work done.

The photo will show Yvonne with some of the giveaway bags, but also a pile of papers.

This pile was the hardest to discard - the remnants of my past.  As I sit here, I can barely remember what I threw away, but as I did it, it was like ripping a band aid off a new scab - exquisitely painful.   My husband was amazed that I had saved anything at all from the box of old records - paperwork from the years we had first been married, the pre-children years.  Shows we had done together all over California - all types of shows.  The application forms, the copies of checks, the letters with information about the shows...all completely useless now for any purpose other than ....memories, of the way we were.(Good title for a song?)

Here's the rub.....will I be able to recall these events without these pages?  Until I looked at them, they were dim, misty, water-colored in my past.....now, I see the tables we were assigned and I can see it all again, the people we met, where we stayed, the fun times, the tired times, the days of relaxation after a long, successful show.

When people say you are throwing away your life, it is usually meant in a bad way - over a useless love, a foolish whim, some horrible vice.....So when I have to throw these items away, it is almost as if I am throwing away....my life.   I realize that getting rid of a little is a toe in the ocean, and that if I want to swim to Catalina, I will need to conquer more of my fears of forgetting.

But it feels so good to see it all start.  The bags are ready for Monday's Amvets pick-up, and I am ready for a dip in the jacuzzi.  (Or as my son says, I AM the dip in the jacuzzi)

Maybe, just maybe, I am not throwing away my life.....maybe I am starting a new chapter.

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Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315
JanetSTigerMonologueMania.blogspot.com

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8