It's Only Stuff (The Big Move, Prep Day #2)

Well, today was my final day of bittersweet preparations for the move to St. Louis, MO. The movers came and took away (almost) all of my personal belongings, to be held in a secure space in San Jose until I give them a permanent delivery address in the Central Time Zone. When a dear friend of mine moved several months ago, he put his stuff into storage and told me he got sad seeing it all locked up like that. And I admit that as the movers secured the last box into place on the truck, I actually said, "Bye, bye, stuff" and waved goodbye. But then the foreman said, "No, it's not goodbye. We'll take good care of your stuff and you'll see it all soon."

So as much as this has been an emotional and joyride of a transition period in my life, and as much as I may not wholeheartedly embrace the consumerism culture that I acknowledge I am a part of, it took that moment for me to make a new shift in perspective: all of my stuff is only stuff. Here I was spending my day running final errands and making sure my stuff would be kept safe, that some of my stuff would ship out ahead of me (into the receiving care of another friend in St. Louis), and then I carefully packed the car so that there will be as little as possible visible in the car along the way (and I will only need to grab a backpack with the precious technology stuff in it when I stop along the way). And now here I am on the eve of my move, realizing that all that fuss was just over stuff. Yes, some of the data might be painful to lose in the hardware. Yes, I would hate to arrive in St. Louis and not have appropriate work clothes with me. Yes, it will be comfortable to make this roadtrip with snacks in the front seat and music playing in the car.

But more important than any of that will be the sights I see along the way, the people I may meet in this strangely rushed travel, the memories I will always have in my heart, the incredibly significant friends and acquaintances that have gathered in my life along this journey and all others. There's no way to pack, box, or ship that kind of stuff. And that's the stuff that really matters. So yes, I said goodbye to the material stuff. And I'll be happy to have it all back some day (soon). It's all of that other "stuff" that I am so happy I do not have to depart with and bid "auf wiedersehen" to that is charging my heart and mind and soul right now.

My now vacated and closed storage unit.

So thank you, Storage Unit #3053 for being the safe repository of my stuff these last four months. But to an entire universe of happiness, of possibilities, of lessons, of established histories, of wild identities, of imagined futures, of genuine possibilities, I am even more thankful for the stuff that lies in the repository of my soul: all the good stuff that is coming along with me on this life journey.

Hitting the road in the morning...good night!