30. Affirmations

Hand’s beginning to cramp so I’ll give it a rest, go see what Dad’s up to. Busy packing again by the sounds of it. When he started all this moving malarky, he told me that all I had to do was clear out my bedroom and Judy’s and he’d take care of the rest. Said he’s going to throw a lot of stuff out - give it to charity, have a garage sale maybe. And that he was ‘detaching’ himself from as many material belongings and creature-comforts as he could. From now on he’d be travelling light. I wondered if this included booze, but instead asked if that was what all those yellow post-it stickers stuck around the house were about.
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‘Affirmations,’ he said with a hint of excitement. ‘They help you make things happen, help you focus. When you’re deciding what to take and what to discard ask yourself this question: Would my life be noticeably worse off without this? If you can’t honestly say YES, just throw it in there.’ He pointed to an enormous chest-high box by the dining-table. It had a large post-it sticker on it that read: Let Go - Move On. I felt like saying, Wow, groovy, but bit my tongue.
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Where does he gets his ideas thesedays?
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Packing is one of many tasks I haven’t gotten around to yet. More to the point, I’ve been putting it off.
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Why?
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Because I’m lazy? Because I’m a little disoriented with the speed of things? Because the thought of going through Judy’s things, deciding what to keep and what to let go, is more than I can face?
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I know I won’t be able to let go of anything. And I also know that I’m going to have to, like it or not. She’s got so much stuff. Of course, her bed and the rest of the furniture will go, but I’ll box up what I can of her smaller sized belongings and bring them with us. Her tapes and LP’s will fill a dozen boxes alone.

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