It’s been a year since we moved back into the edge of the big city from a small town out a short trip through the corn and soybean fields. Today my wife and I finally finished sorting and boxing all the stuff we’re giving away. Yes — it’s one thing to sort 1/3 of the things we kept and 1/3 for the trash. It’s another thing to finally be rid of the things we held somewhere else to give away or sell. OK, so we haven’t used it in 10 years, but the memories.
The phrase has echoed in our heads, “Keep the memories, not the stuff.”
The longer we spent in the last several weeks looking at give or sell, most things went to give to just be done with it. We looked at the handful of things of value, picked one to keep for the memories, and let someone else make their own memories with the rest.
I went though the same thing when my team decided to make remote work our full-time plan. As we packed up the office, there were lots of memories as the founder of the company. I still have the stuff in my garage not (yet) donated, sold, or claimed by anyone. So it continues.
Looking back at 2020, there are many memories I’d like to leave behind with the stuff. The one things I’ll keep is the people. In this case, I’ll leave the COVID memories and keep the people. I’ll keep the new memories of helping each other bounce back each day. Silly team building activities via Zoom that made us laugh. And new adventures we decided to take because there was no longer any reason not to.
So what are you keeping and leaving behind? Good memories and good people are easier to take on this adventure than stuff. You can have it, if it helps you on your journey. We’re traveling light.
Life is a team sport. Pick the right team to make the right memories.