“The more difficult the feat, the greater the satisfaction at its accomplishment.” Jack London

A big thanks to our former insurance guru (former because of his retirement, not by our choosing), Mike Bourland, for sharing a lovely link with us. The link leads to part of the preface for Jack London’s “The Cruise of the Snark.”

As I read it, I first thought, I am so impressed! Nathan really has been learning sailing terminology: Being stuck in the spray, broached to, and one of my favorites: rolling her rail under to starboard. Then, you know Nathan probably doesn’t want me to read about sailing difficulties. I may never step aboard. But overall, I loved it and found the story vastly inspirational. My favorite part is the quote, “The more difficult the feat, the greater the satisfaction at its accomplishment.”

As I look around at the boxes and the chaos that our house has become, I have to remind myself that this part may be difficult right now but the reward will make it worthwhile. Getting rid of extra clothes, books and kitchen items has really been pretty easy. It’s living among the chaos that’s hard. It’s having a whole empty of furniture bedroom (formerly occupied by my daughter) stacked full of precious keepsakes or potential future use items that causes the sting of acid reflux.  One of the most challenging boxes staring at me is one that contains nothing but blank books that I bought at Border’s for $1 each before they closed. I don’t want to get rid of those books because I love the paper and binding. Or, should I just let them go? Experience over stuff and all of that.

Also, I have mother’s guilt. I haven’t quite been able to go through boxes of my children’s artwork without sobbing. I have Pinterest-ed myself into a corner trying to figure out what to do with 20-year-old artifacts of precious macaroni art. I know I can take a photo of it, but it’s not the same. My child touched this divine masterpiece, spent time, traced/cut out/painted his or her hands. I mean, how can you scan and throw this away?

Or this package of self-portrait awesomeness (Check out the rings on her fingers, Gwen was super fashion conscious even then.)

Or, when Gwen foretold what her future step-dad would look like (he he).

The shelves are emptying and the boxes are growing. Donation here. To go to family there. To sell here. (Shameless plug: If you are interested in purchasing said stuff, go to our Facebook group, Aluminum Dreams- Selling it All). The chaos changes shape every weekend. But, it will shift and evolve into other challenges. I can’t wait to have less stuff to take care of. I’m excited to experience life as a “life that lives.” It’s the process of downsizing that is challenging.

So, thank you again, Mike Bourland for sharing the link. We both enjoyed reading it and you should as well.

Photo at the top: Taken by Nathan Lorenz, named “Stubborn Sailor”