Memories, light the corners of my mind….
September 2, 2009 by Julie Seibert
Filed under Blog
The good news is that I don’t have audio on my site so you don’t have to hear me butcher Barbara Streisand.
Years ago I heard Peter Walsh speak when I was a member of the Junior League of Pasadena. After hearing Peter speak I was able to let go of some dishes that had been my grandmother’s.
When my grandmother died, my father and aunts were very generous to make sure each family member had something of my grandmother’s. I received a beautiful bedroom set she had as a child. It is almost one hundred years old! She had two small desks that are in my home office. In fact, my computer screen is on one of them. The rest of the bedroom set is in my guest bedroom that provides a good night’s rest for friends and family.
I also received some dishes. These dishes had been sitting on a desk collecting dust for probably 50 years. They looked like something that they would have given in the oldie days when you signed up for a bank account.
They had originally been white (I think!) with daisies that were yellow, but they were just gray and dingy. What Peter made me realize is that my giving the dishes away to someone who truly needed them I was honoring my grandmother in a way she would have valued. And when I gave them away I didn’t cry; I didn’t feel guilty like I was dishonoring her. I felt good and her memory didn’t disappear!
Remember, if you let go of stuff that you don’t treasure, you will not lose the memory of someone you love.