Do I have any collections? Not anymore. Oh, I used to have a huge collection of all things Wizard of Oz, antiques and vintage items, and a smaller one of Chewbacca, but when I retired, I realized that I needed to downsize my life. I also realized that my children would not appreciate the Wizard of Oz items and antiques as much as I did. (Of course, they gladly accepted the Chewbacca memorabilia. Who wouldn’t?) So, I decided to get rid of them. Some of it was hard to let go, especially if it had previously belonged to an ancestor, but some of it had been packed up so long, I didn’t remember having it. In the end, I realized it was just stuff, and stuff didn’t make me happy. The memories and experiences I attributed to those things did. So now, when it’s my birthday or Mother’s Day, instead of getting me another Wizard of Oz figurine to gather dust, my kiddos get me experiences, like the ZZ Top concert I wrote about in an earlier post. I hope to have those memories for a long, long time.

After writing this I was reminded of a quote given at the end of every one of The Minimalists’ podcasts, “Love people and use things because the opposite never works.”