Turning point

Some kind of switch has flipped for me this week. The time pressure is becoming real, the seasonal changes have had an impact–we hit 80 degrees the other day!–and I feel like the tide has turned from “we’re leaving someday soon” to “final prep.” Decisions are coming faster; purchases are being made without the thought of putting it off until we do more research; and evaluating all our stuff for the categories of Pitch, Sell, Store or Take is instantaneous. (There’s a very small pile of “Take If We Can Find Room On The Boat,” which is making the process easier.) We’ve taken our last family non-boat trip from Madison. The school days are winding down. Meal prep is quick, bread is no longer being baked, the whole house feels lighter as our possessions decrease. We’ve started taking advantage of the offers of help from our friends, as we now know very specifically where we need assistance.

Paradoxically, this shift has made me calmer. Fewer things seem vague and uncertain; for better or worse, choices are being made. For most things, the weightiness seems to diminish in the aftermath. Looking at a bookshelf and knowing that the worth of each volume needs to be debated At Some Point has been annoying for months; a cleaned out bookshelf is a perfectly peaceful thing. And really–am I going to be sitting at anchor wishing beyond everything that I’d packed the MFK Fisher? If that turns out to be my biggest regret–well, A.) life must be pretty good; and B.) Kindle, baby. Turns out, there are very few choices that can’t be undone, and most of them don’t matter much anyway.

We’re on our way out.

Easy choices: our neighborhood is filled with Little Free Libraries--an easy way to pass along some of our books.
Easy choices: our neighborhood is filled with Little Free Libraries–a great way to pass along some of our books.

3 Comments on “Turning point

    • There’s an ice cream flavor around here called “This sh*t just got serious.” We should be stocking it at all times.

  1. And it is delicious! Also, you ice cream intake is probably going up, per your earlier post of savoring such things.

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