Home - A Different Sort of Journey

Most of the time our goal is to find great homes for our foster dogs. They are out there, and wonderful homes they are. Often I wish I could be adopted with the foster dog. Thus far, that hasn't happened, but it still could you never know.

For the last year I've been working on a different type of journey home, or home journey, if you will. I've been working on getting my Mom's house ready to sell. It's been a long process, but then with no specific deadline, and a busy life it can take a while. I have had help, from the Big Guy upstairs, from Reno, from my siblings, from those who support me in every way shape and form.

Yes, I've grumbled about the process over the months. There has been a less than equal division of labor, but that was evident even before Mom's passing. So you do what you have to do. I still have the tendency to want to bring everything home, even when I knew I would never use it. I found a way around that, I'd bring it home, and once it was here I found myself more able to part with it.

Some things went to the heirs, some went to an estate sale, some went to the Good Will, some went to the "land of no return" aka the dumpster. A few items, this week, in a last ditch effort (ditch being the operative word)were simply free-cycled. We took the redneck approach, hauled select items to the curb, taped some note paper together and wrote FREE on it. Of course, at the time no marker was to be found. Yes, I'll own it. I wrote the FREE sign in lipstick. Laugh if you will, most women don't carry magic markers in their purses - but lipstick, that's a whole other story. In case you are wondering - all those items were hauled away lickity split.

So today found two of us getting the last few items out of the garage. Sweeping the dirt from the floor and treating the weeds growing in the cracks with weed killer. It seems a good metaphor. Sweep away the dirt, kill the weeds of life that may cloud the memories. Dump the baggage from that past, share some of the usable items...and go forward.

The house is neat, tidy, and waiting for new occupants. It is good to let it go, taking what has value, leaving what holds us back. Dusted off, cleaned up, ready to go.