Stops, starts and slips...

The Online garage sale business is proving quite exhausting, both physically and emotionally. Setting up a photo album full of my random bits and pieces and trying to make them look like JUST the thing my viewers need. What price on a piece of my family history? I keep telling myself it is better to move things quickly so that I can clear the deck, and prevent episodes of regret. So I do, and right about tea time the messages start beeping and bomping. (What is the correct terminology for the noise that your iPhone makes when a message turns up?) I have 2 computers running, and the iPhone, and they all make noises at me simultaneously, while I try to eat dinner and Skype with my husband!
For my daughters, I select a couple of heirloom 'symbolic' gifts. Elise, my youngest will receive the Cake serving set, as I see a gift of hospitality and serving others on her life. Besides this is by tradition, passed to the youngest girl in the family. To my eldest, Melinda, I plan to give the silver cutlery set that was my own baby spoon and pusher, emphasizing the nurturing Mother spirit she possesses.
I pick somethings up and am ambivalent about 'listing' them... like the little Royal Doulton egg cups my sister gave me as an Engagement present 36 years ago. Making the decision that I might send them to one of the kids, I take them out to put them in my sorting boxes and drop one! They survived 36 years of breakfasts, holding toothpicks for parties (their main occupation), 5 kids wanting a boiled egg in Mum's egg cup and the occasional grandchild too, and also countless moves. Then a split second's loss of concentration sees one plummet to the ground.(I hope you look after the survivor, Melinda). 
It somehow brings home our own inevitable 'breaking of the set', and I am convinced that our choice to make life happen together, is a a good decision. We just don't know when that slip may occur so best to enjoy our matched status. I am grateful for the 35 years of adventure we've had and look forward to the future.

Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; Ecclesiastes 12:6

Prelude

prel·ude  n.

1. An introductory performance, event, or action preceding a more important one; a preliminary or preface.

So it begins...  the process of finding new homes for our collection of 'stuff' that we have added to, refined and re-defined over the last 35 years. I knew it would be a difficult process as my sentimentality begs me to hold on to those precious memories... but what is a memory?
It's not the inanimate object that recalls it to mind and engenders the warm fuzzies. Rather it is the mental images of the times shared, thoughts behind gifts and pride in children's developing creativity expressed in the many things I've kept and displayed to keep them close.
Unlike people who lose everything through natural disaster, I have the option to pre-plan this 'loss' and soften it into a 'letting go'. Reading other blogs discussing what approach those wishing to travel lightly into the next chapter of life have taken, I think I have come up with a few ideas that will mean less regret. A gentle release of objects that will not tear at my heart, because I'm keeping the memory associated with them.
This idea was partly birthed in practicality. How does one diverse themselves of a lifetime of living in this digital era? Online... obviously! I considered ebay (too expensive, and postage on a couch? Not happening!) Gumtree... may be the backup for the larger items... but it seemed to me that the locally based Buy & Sell Facebook pages would bring about the easiest results. That and a Garage Sale (which could also be advertised on said Facebook pages). Step 1 in that process requires me to 'take a photo' to make an ad. This is where my joint plan kicks in. 
Our goal is to only have 2 suitcases each, and our laptops and portable hard drives. So as I 'capture the memories' (nice phrase there) for the ads, I will be able to keep them and plan to write a small memoir of each that has a story I wish my grandkids would be able to know. Might be useful if I ever get Alzheimer's too... "The Notebook" style!
One of the things I read in my research was a comment on the author's realisation that she 'loved every single one of her possessions', and acknowledged that fondness as she 'popped them in a box'. It is alright to like your stuff, and even love it and still let it go... we do it with our kids, it shouldn't be as difficult for something without an actual heartbeat! 
Okay, I'm off to begin the process.