Parting Ways

Hello, my name is Meghan and I'm a pack rat.

"Hello, Meghan."

It has taken me six months to get to this point...well, that's not completely accurate. I guess it's been building over a lifetime. But it reached a new level when I got married and had to move all my "stuff" into our new apartment. All the belongings that had been stuffed in my room since 7th grade. All the stuff that had been locked up in a storage unit since college. All of it followed me here. Papers from middle school. Magazines. Labs from high school. Notes from college. Brochures from graduate schools I never attended. More magazines. You get the picture.

I recently came to a place emotionally where I've been able to start tossing stuff en masse. Intellectually I've known that I want my life to be less cluttered. Emotionally...it was harder than I expected. I think part of me felt attached to some of these items because I had linked them to my past accomplishments. In the present, though, there are fewer recognitions of achievement and I was holding to some of those pieces of paper as proof that I had in fact achieved something at some point in life, whether it was academically or otherwise.

In discussing it with my husband, we found a way to make it easier to get rid of at least papers and such from college. We were planning on hanging our college diplomas in the office area in the second bedroom. Whenever I need to, I can point to that piece of paper and say to myself, "Yes, I did earn that." I know it's silly and trivial but, with how I've felt recently, it is much needed to know that I have, can and will accomplish things in this world.

I know there are much more eternal things to accomplish than just earning a college degree or unpacking the last box. I try to keep that in mind as I struggle to part with items that have no business still being around and taking up space in my life physically and emotionally. I know that in this season God is preparing and growing me. "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." He knows where my life is going and wants only the best for me. Part of that is releasing the things that have been weighing me down and following me around for way to long. It has felt good to see the number of boxes diminish and know that some day it may help me to be ready for what God's calling will be.

At this point, though, I'm just really looking forward to the day when I can say "we are now OFFICIALLY moved in!" :)

Soli Deo Gloria!
Meghan