Emotional baggage of moving

We've both moved before and gotten rid of worldly goods, but this is on extreme level. It's all the way to 11, if you are a Spinal Tap fan. We are taking only ourselves, some of our clothing, small cherished sundries, laptops, rolled up artwork, a few books, and the cat.

The challenge: we are on Aer Lingus and have three checked bags per person. We also have carry ons. We can't pay to get more, that's IT.

Before we booked the flights our 'some books' was around 120. We gave 90 books away to a friend when we saw the baggage limits. I made an Airtable list of all of our household goods and library, and we have a status column for 'bring, giveaway, donate'. At least it's pretty to look at, and lists are always fun to complete. I should have put in a scoring system to entice me further.

(Mentally notes when the bags are pack that I'll buy myself steak and chocolate cake)

I have to go through the clothing again today to really ask myself what I'll need there. Shayne already did a great job, I kinda punted the project and moved to others. But it needs to happen. What really says 'me' now, and what's more of a rearview mirror style that I no longer need. Do I need three Gatsby dresses? Am I keeping some of the clothing because I like the idea of having it?

Like when I buy kale and think that I'll use it, and then it ends up starting to congeal in a bag in the fridge. I like the person I am at the grocery store who buys these things, and the vision of that, but at least I learned with produce. Yay for growth. Now, I just need to do the same with my closet.

This is the hard part for me, but the harder part is coming to terms with certain items passed down that I know just won't make the journey.

One of my cherished bits that I say at times about the past/emotions/issues is "never carry more baggage in life that you can carry on a plane, no checked bags allowed". It feels so apt right now to repeat to myself. On this journey it makes sense we'd need to check some of our emotional baggage to get it across, but it's really about time anyway I do this emotional purge. I love and hate that we only have three bags, it's forcing us to prioritize and ask ourselves hard questions.

Mom had a jewelry box that Dad gave her one Christmas, that night after she lovingly placed it on the dresser, a massive mirror fell and damaged it a bit. I took it as one of the things from her house to keep, shuffled through her jewelry, kept some, and put in my own. Now, I look at it and wonder if it'll make another journey in a checked bag. It got dropped and further damaged when we moved here, the hinges are now bent a bit. Is this the world telling me to be rid of it? I'm wondering if I leave it for a friend here in the States, or if I leave it in a bag for a bit to pick up when I'm back next spring or so. Hard to say. I'm going to leave that one until last.

It's amazing what items we hold close and what we don't. We've done a miraculous job of this, given that a lot of our household had items from my parents. I've spent the last weeks scanning pictures, tearfully going through them, reaching out to friends and family to see who wants the actual pictures or the link to all the digital libraries I've made.

We are rebuilding a new life and it feels so raw, the building of it. We are fortunate to be able to bring what we can, some cannot bring anything at all when they immigrate. We are fortunate to have each other, our health, and our mindsets to rebuild our lives again. We need to bring the barebones of life, it's just so hard to make those judgements. We've dropped off entire households to Goodwill and given massive amounts to friends before. This seems harder.

We aren't to the 3 bags per person yet, we have about four weeks to do that.

There will be more decisions to make, and what we do now and the questions we ask ourselves are all part of this shaping journey.

If we keep at the shaping often, we don't harden to the thought, like when you leave clay or Play-Doh out too long. We have to keep supple to the idea of change. We don't know what's on the other side of this life we are about to embark on, but we do know if we remain flexible, kind, and optimistic we'll be ok. We certainly will have more shaping once we arrive, so this really is just practice for the rest of our lives.