One dimension I had not anticipated with downsizing is all the strange shreds of the past that get unearthed as you sift through the nooks and crannies where you have hidden stuff.
I am working through a bag that my brother Mike passed onto me, that I have never really looked at. My mum's water colours, dad's degrees, his B Ed thesis on teaching mathematics, pages from my great great great grandparents Bible...
There are my paternal grandfather's papers from his houseboat Waterlilly that the family used to sail around Shanghai around 1917.
Thanks to the marvels of Google translate, I can see this is telling officials that Hardy Gu, my grandfather, is a gentleman of good character, and instructing that he should be treated with courtesy. There are other papers listing all the places not to go thanks to martial law and civil unrest ... Makes sailing on the Bay look very tame.
And there are my disgraceful records of wooden boat association committee meetings.
I do suspect my heart is not really in committee work.
So much stuff, the thinking about it is harder than actually doing something with it.
But, we are making progress. Derry went off to a new home, to live in a neat, dry garage with a Eureka canoe for company and a nice young family ... Better than being out in the rain being crapped on by possums, but still a lot of good memories going with her. Ewaste collection at the council depot today, a pile of stuff gone. Poisons collection next weekend. More books to the Brotherhood...
I wake up at around 1 am most mornings, and often can't get back to sleep as my head starts running through all of the things, a lot to process.
It seems overwhelming but if we keep on chipping away, just doing the next thing, with luck we will come out the other side.
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