Saying goodbye is never easy.......
...especially after 26 years.
This morning I dedicated space in my sketch journal to say goodbye to some really good friends. I drew each of them and said thank you. For 26 years they have been a part of my daily life and now they have left me. Yesterday, a delightful woman and her teenage son came by with a pickup truck and took my friends away.
There was an antique desk that needed refinishing, but this never got to the top of my to-do list. This desk is where I have done my daily spiritual practices for 26 years - reading, meditating, studying. This is also where I sat when I gave many of my mentoring sessions. The desk was already an antique when I adopted it, but I have no idea how old it was.
There was a recliner chair where I read, crocheted, watched television and did many of my earliest guided meditations. Over the years, it had lost its buoyancy and the fabric was less than stellar.
One of my favorite old friends was a triangular corner desk my father, a carpenter, made in 1947. It held our telephone during my childhood years and beyond. I’m sure it could tell many stories.
Then there’s the large coffee table that sat in our living room for 26 years. It’s where Rhonda made her first colored pencil drawings. It used to be her artist’s table and most of the pieces you might have enjoyed on her Facebook page were drawn there.
When we moved from Washington State to Arizona six months ago (has it really been six months?), we gave away some furniture we planned to replace, and took some others we planned to use for awhile and then replace. We were in for some rude awakenings during the process.
Some of the furniture we bought in late October, 2021, was to be delivered in early January 2022. That date morphed into late January, then February, then March, and finally it became April and the furniture was delivered. What to do with the old furniture when you don’t have a large enough vehicle to drive it to the Good will and neither they or other charitable outlets will come and pick up furniture?
You call the Trash Warriors who, for a price, will have someone come to your house, load up your stuff, and take it to donation places or the dump depending on the condition of the furniture. That’s how I met the delightful woman and her son who took away my friends.
Some people laugh at me because I talk to the furniture, appliances, car, and even our house. To me, everything has consciousness. Just because a table’s consciousness isn’t like mine doesn’t mean we can’t connect. And so we do.
This morning as I was musing about these changes, I couldn’t help but think of the people in Ukraine who were simply living their lives one day and the next had to abandon their homes, furnishings and all. How lucky I am I could make this choice rather than have it foisted upon me.
Now I get to make new relationships with tables, chairs, and desks knowing we’re in for the long haul of being together many years. It’s not easy losing old friends, but it is exciting to make new ones.
Here’s a Three or Under video I made in early 2021 that addresses grief and loss. I made it as we began transitioning out of the early stages of Covid19 when I was still publishing New Spirit Journal. The concepts I share are 100% still valid and I trust they will be helpful to you.
Living with grace and ease,
Krysta