I’m sorry if you drop in here regularly hoping for news from Catalunya. For the moment at least I am totally absorbed in the business of moving house and especially what it is like when you are moving from one country to another. For anyone who is interested in this process perhaps I am describing fascinating things but I would like to reassure the others that soon……very soon….the posts will be back to normal(whatever that is!)
I start with this as I noticed yesterday that I had lost one of my ‘followers’. I have so few of you that each and every one is important to me and I notice when someone appears….or disappears. I don’t know why some blogs have hundreds of followers and I do not but I do want to say to those of you who are hanging on in there with me – thank you!
So, back to moving house. There is a lot of pressure nowadays to declutter. To let go of stuff and live a minimalist life. Even if you don’t want to live in a white monastic uncluttered box, most people including me want to feel free of all the gubbins that we accumulate throughout life. Somehow life flows better when it doesn’t have to fight for breath under piles of clutter. When you are moving house obviously this seems the perfect time to separate out what to keep and what to say goodbye to.
In Chinese Medicine this process of sorting and separating is governed by the energy of the Small Intestine. An imbalance here can lead to either holding onto everything or letting go of too much. With obvious parallels in the physical body.
But the process of sorting and separating is work – it needs time and it needs clarity of purpose. It is very depressing to spend half an hour indecisively putting things in one pile only to move them later to another. I started with a dream of only taking things that are 100% beloved or useful with me to Catalunya. But now in the later stages of this process I find myself packing small items that I could live without. I imagine myself unpacking them at the other end and wondering why I brought them. I am constantly swithering between a desire to travel light and a fear of floating off into space without enough baggage to tether me down. I will probably send off my goods on Wednesday with a removal van from Cornwall to sail over to France and drive down to Catalunya and be received in Granollers in my absence. It feels unreal. I look at my home which is slowly turning into the minimal white monastic cell I dreamt of and I wonder why it is so hard to create this space to live in!
Packing dilemma – what to do with a bag of knitting needles and wool? Like many others I get the occasional urge to knit something – not often but every few years this comes over me. So do I take this bag with me or accept that I’ll have to buy it all again in Spain?
I vote to take the knitting needles and wool. As great as it is to “let go” I often find myself kicking because I “just got rid of” something I then had to go out and buy. *sigh* Keep the needles. I’ll hang in there whilst you get thee to Catalunya. Whether you are posting daily or weekly or every fort night (never thought I’d get to use that expression!), what you are sharing I want to hear. Same with me, alas, my posting has dropped down to my weekly coffees. I am hoping that once December gets here I will be freed up a bit for time.
No calia disculpar-te, és part de la teva experiència entre Cornualles i Catalunya que estàs visquent. You are living your “Cornish connections” like you say in the subtitle of this blog, isn’t it?
Take all the things you feel that you will need to buy again here. Only can stay some for raisons of repetition, volume or heavyness… Emportat’t també les coses que t’agraden que et fan sentir bé, també les petites cosetes, no cal llençar-ho tot! Però sí, de tota la resta em sembla que fas bé d’allibera-te’n.
És difícil i entretingut, però catàrtic també. Antilop! xxxx
Hang tough hon, there’ll be stuff you tossed you kicked yourself for and stuff you kept that will baffle you. Perfection is impossible. You’ll get it done.
Oh, that made me laugh because my knitting bag sits in the wardrobe and every year when I do the seasonal clothes change-over, I find it in the corner. Every winter I say I’ll knit and, you’ve guessed it….the bag goes back in the wardrobe, unused. But there’s a certain comfort in that – I can knit if I want to. And its contents bring back happy memories for me.
My thinking was “if in doubt, take it”. I could always dump it later.
I’ll be tracking your progress and wish you well.
P.
The knitting bag went! And I thought perhaps I will start with crocheting dog blankets – with three of them now we need loads of comfy places for them to sleep. Thanks to you all for your words – today the big things set off on their way and of course I feel calmer now it’s done.
Yes – the trick is to accept there will be mistakes and just relax about it!
Why do we kick ourselves so much ? Really we should be doing the opposite – which is? Stroking our hands…..but only in private as it could look crazy! K x