Hey Angie,

Reading this while having my wee hour coffee before we begin day one of of my mother's estate sale. She's moving from her home into an assisted living facility.

I'm living that story with my mother now. A very sentimental woman, her home is packed with nick-nacks, papers, paintings, furniture.... all with special stories. She can only take so much with her.

You may recall that we recently sold everything we had and moved onto a relatively small sail boat. As we cleared out all that such stuff of our own, it pained me that no one really wanted any of it. It pains me even more to turn down memory filled objects my mother offers us.

It has been a stressful, but sweet, week of seeing, touching, sorting, and pricing all this memory-filled stuff! I pray that mom understands that it is not that we don't care, its just that our lifestyle just doesn't accommodate the accumulation of things. That lifestyle does, however, afford us plenty of quiet time to reflect and remember.

This week has been a good exercise in helping me release whatever pain I held on to as my wife and I tossed away many things that were once precious to us. After all, it is only "stuff."