my parents
have a barn
next to their house
in washington.
the top floor
is sibling storage
where all
of us kids
have spray-painted
squares
to delineate
how much space
each person
has...
i brought home
stuff on the plane
to store
in my space
because
my apartment
is so small...
mostly photos,
albums,
and letters...
placed
and
carefully labeled
in rubbermaid.
i found this
old
postcard collage
that
my brother
mailed to me
7 years ago
when i lived
in seattle.
and
this old
photograph
from eero
mailed to me
in 1995.
these objects
stored away
in boxes
in the
fly and
mice-ridden
old barn.
will i ever
retrieve them?
why do
we save these things...
when later
we wonder why
we saved them at all?
when
we would forget them
if we didn't
occasionally
go back and
dig
through old boxes?
forget them
"...like lost
change in sofas,
or
lint in back pockets..."
nice to be home.
missed you.
cupcake
photo shoot
tomorrow.
xo
7 comments:
Welcome back! You were missed. How was your brother's show? His paintings are beautiful.
Take care.
Even though I am the queen of not-saving, I have a box stuffed with every postcard that anyone ever sent me. You know how having something hanging over your head (like junk in a storage space) can suck up mental energy? I think those personal things do just the opposite - it's like putting memory on an external hard drive to free up mental space. But when you go back to the box all those rich memories are beautifully preserved (with most of the bad parts miraculously washed away!).
hi dear.... i don't know why we save them all but we do. and then when we see them again aren't they like old friends?
both your examples are lovely. what else could you do with them? not possibly throw them away.... so they will at least wait in the rubbermaid in the barn for your return....
missed you too..i guess the really special 'stuff' you just have to keep and enjoy revisiting them every 7 years...or they are there for someone else to discover years later...a treasure trove..xxx
I think we must have an innate longing to keep buried treasures/memories, saving a part of ourselves and digging them up years later, to remind us of our past. Love the collage from your brother, it's so you! Have a Happy Valentines dear.
i love the re-remembering after you've forgotten the details, finding a letter or a photo in a box and having it all flood back. that makes the saving worth it for me...
I'm the same way, saving memories for a later date to remind me of happiness that once was. Its human to cherish bits & pieces from people we love.
Your items will survive in the rubbermaid for sure :)
xo
sly.heart.west
p.s. is gwennivere really your name? b/c that's one of the best names ever!
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