A case of the blahs...

I've got a bad case of the blahs today. For one, I feel like I've been run over by a truck. My throat was a bit scratchy the other day and now today my head feels foggy. I'm rarely ever sick, and I don't like being sick either. Of course I can't imagine that anyone likes to be sick so that was probably a silly statement. I don't think that I'm actually sick today, but more in that in between state where I feel like I'm dragging around and generally feeling blah. Earlier the walls felt like they were closing in on me, so I took a quick trip to Home Depot to look around a bit. I was glad to get out for a bit, but I could hardly think walking around the store. I'm home now and just laying around like a slug hoping that if I rest enough today, I won't feel this way again tomorrow.

I've been thinking lately that I have too much stuff. As I look around my house and closets, I've decided that I have just too much crap. The funny thing is many people would probably say that I don't really have that much, but it feels like it to me nonetheless. I've been thinking about this a bit and all this stuff, which at the time was fun to accumulate, now seems to be somewhat suffocating. As I'm getting older, I feel like I'm leaning more toward minimalism. I noticed that I gravitate to that design style anyway or at least a modified version. I was looking in my closet the other day thinking that I would like to give most of my clothes away. And not just clothes either. How did I accumulate so much stuff and do I need it all? The answer is of course, no.

It seems to me that all this extra stuff that I really don't need is just more to worry about and more to be attached to. I've been thinking about this really for the last few years on and off, but watching the folks displaced by the hurricane brought it into focus once again. I keep thinking about all those people that wouldn't evacuate their homes because of their stuff. That bothered me quite a bit, and it started me thinking about what I would take if I were forced to leave my house. Photographs would be number one because they represent memories as well as my grandmother's paintings of which I have several. I also have a couple of files of the boys' schoolwork and artwork that I would want. Lastly, I have a few mementos from Latvia that were either my grandmother's or my mother's. So taking a mental inventory, all of these things would fit in one or two good-sized boxes. To me these things are irreplacable. Everything else that I own I may miss if lost or destroyed, but it all can be replaced.

I'm not going to get rid of all my stuff, but I do think that I am going to start to divest myself of many of the unnecessary things that just take up space. I think that I need to purge myself of many of these things because they've come to feel like an enormous weight. I'm going to start to make an effort to move to a more minimalist lifestyle which in my mind will be very freeing. And my closet is a good place to start!

Now if I just didn't feel like such a slug today, I would start packing some clothes and things to give away to someone who will appreciate them more than me...