Reawakening the past
It seemed like the right time to close the chapter of my life in Bakersfield. It is time to give up the self-storage unit after all these years.
Everything has a place to go now: the furniture have a new home, the clothes go to Goodwill, and I will bring home what will always be a part of me. The rest can be junked.
Everything was as I left them - in cartons and suitcases- when I fled the town. Now, two inches of desert sand covered all flat surfaces. I could just about hear a whisper of reproach for abandonment carried on the cool breeze of this quiet winter morning.
I started to sort out the inventory. By the third day, I knew I underestimated what has been kept in storage all this time.
These are not just things. These are everything of my life up to when I left Bakersfield. And it was a full life, complete with good and bad times.
There were the pictures: of friends, of my number one and number two dogs, of a much younger me with my sports car, my home, my garden that I had lovingly tended. The crochet afghan throw made by a very special woman. The love letters. The certificates of commendation for civic work done for the local government. So many memories, long suppressed and almost forgotten, stared me in the face, daring me to damn them to oblivion.
I did the only thing I could do. I cleared what I could in the short few days I gave myself in Bakersfield. The rest will stay until my next visit. I know I will be back. Again and again. This place too, was home, for a big part of my life.
Now that the past has been reawakened, it will join me in the present.
6 comments:
Would love to see your photos if you still have them.
jm - when i sort thru them and ship them back.
I read somewhere, that whatever you've experienced, is already part of you, so there's no need for keepsakes. But still, I think it's nice to keep some things as reminders of good times.
wildgoose - i thought the same way too. they are wrong. bits and pieces of the past in material form still holds a lot of nostalgia and brings back memories in a different dimension.
wow u still have some things in bakersfield? its difficult to throw them away isnt it? - EDPJ
edpj - i didn't know i'd be leaving bakersfield.
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