Letting go

Yesterday I drove over to the storage unit I've been renting for the past couple years to meet up with friends who were interested in some furniture I had for sale.
We bantered back and forth, they took measurements and when they left I found myself looking at framed pictures, furniture, books, and bookshelves, cooking ware, silver ware, candles, and old hiking shoes. There was new unused camping gear, bicycle parts and riding clothes from a past adventure, small cigar boxes full of trinkets, baskets of beads, and even a number of kinder egg surprise toys that stirred up memories of a little boy from my past.
What I was looking at was neatly packed, stacked and collecting dust, reflections of another time, another life that seemed long ago. Strange to think what use to be personal treasure was locked in a dark storage unit and become what I now call stuff! Cool interesting stuff but stuff all the same.
It was eight years ago when I come to my crossroads around work, chasing down the dime, and my plan was simple. Leisurely morning walks, sipping coffee, journal writing, adventure traveling, to just be OK with taking the time to quietly sit and watch birds build their nests, or rice paddies turn green if thats what I wanted.
I had no idea that what I called "The Deconstructing of Brian" would also include what has become a kind of natural purging, a complete letting go of all those other things collected that are no longer important or serve me anymore. Since I spend more time traveling and living in other countries then I do at home these days passing my treasures on to others has become a natural almost effortless affair plus along with this clearing out the years of consuming accumulation comes the opportunity for me to operate from a place where less is more. I feel a freedom in this choice, a lighter wisdom, space, I'm healthier somehow and my perspective around buying and owning has changed dramatically.
 I don't consider myself a die hard minimalist at least I'm not at that point where I know the exact number of items I own, but must admit being curious how life will be once I've shed what feels like the final layers of unseen weight and responsibility of harboring stuff.

                                                              Rice Paddy in Thailand