Nearly fifteen years ago, when I was leaving South Africa and moving back to Europe, I remember being struck with the reality that you can't pack fifteen years of your life into a couple of suitcases. While my furniture and my pets on that occasion were staying with my South African house and housemate, I had to make hard decisions about all my other stuff - what to take back with me, what to give away to others and what to simply throw out.
That's a normal part of moving 10,000 km away to another continent, and I didn't really expect that I'd have to face the same experience again in the future. But, in a smaller way, the reality of having to move out of my house here in Spain, without having anywhere to move to, and the prospect of having to put most of my stuff into storage has brought a strange sense of déjà vu and forced me to be ruthless again about what I need to get rid of.
Plenty of shoes have been disposed of this week... I've thrown out any old dog-walking shoes that have seen better days and I've packed up for the charity shop all the pretty little summer sandals that I would actually have liked to keep, but in fact I only wear them a few times a year.
Some furniture will need to go too. The rocking chair and table from my porch can go to a neighbour... as I've no idea whether there'll be a porch or any outdoor space in the place I end up. That old sofa that the dog likes to use as a bed will need to go to the dump. She loves it, but it's not worth renting storage space for old furniture of little material value.
There's a Bible passage where Jesus sends His disciples out on mission and tells them to take almost nothing with them. (In Matthew 10 and Luke 10, for example.) There was a good reason for telling them to "travel light" - He wanted them to depend completely on God and on others for all their needs.
And so that's been my experience this week: throwing away and giving away! As well as doing the normal "de-cluttering" that we all need to do periodically, and getting rid of old stuff, I'm also giving away plenty of newer stuff too... because I've no idea where I'm going or whether I can take it with me.
With exactly one week left until I have to move out of this house, I guess that "throwing away and giving away" is going to be a big part of how I'll spend this coming weekend.
