The concept of ownership is strange when you really think about it.
Besides what is in our own hearts and minds, an internal gathering of possessions that only really have ‘value’ to the original owner, ownership is a transient concept for most matters.
Most of us do not reside where we grew up, most of us no longer have the material wares of our childhood that meant so much at one time, then were discarded as outdated and of no use, and now fondly thought of as a resting place for nostalgia.
Buddhists have an interesting take on the subject, saying that the only thing we own is our thoughts and also our actions and intentions, anything else can be lost or if lost can be found. An intriguing concept, and admittedly one that gives me comfort when I am selling what remains of my personal possessions currently for the second time in my life.
The first time was when I left Port Lavaca to go back to Illinois in 2012, which is now (amazingly to me) almost ten years ago. That, at least in terms of emotion was a much sadder affair, one that was the closing of one era of my life altogether, including losing people that were very important to me and still are today.
I won’t dwell here on the reasons behind either instance of having to sell off what I had accumulated in life because that was not my point in writing this column, not my muse if you will. It is how experience and reflection caused me to realize the true things that seemed to have value and what could tarnish in your eyes depending on what angle you looked from.
Doing it now, I realized recently is a much ‘colder’ task, somewhat because of that Buddhist angle on possessions, but also because that last time I did this I learned I eventually forgot about all the things I had lost in 2012; they were just things in the end.
Maybe if they had some monetary value, I felt a slight sting to the checkbook but the only time I really ever wanted a item back was if there was sentimental value attached to it, which was the whole change that I see as I sort what is to be sold first and what can sell fast, whatever can lighten the load of my ‘stock’ quickly.
There are some things that I hold back on selling for the purpose that I never used them or still was planing to use them in the future or they were things that I desired, things that made the mundane cycle of life at times seem a little more comfortable.
They say growth, new experiences, and even happiness itself lies not in the comfortable moments but in the uncomfortable, the scary, the unknown.
Having to sell things by need rather than by desire does the same; it shakes you a bit, makes you see things in new ways, and perhaps even is washing away the old to bring in the new…because from experience, we find both dark and light inside the circumstances that shift our life into new positions.
