This past weekend we cleaned out my mother-in-law’s attic. There were a few pieces of furniture, Christmas decorations, blankets, hats (which I tried on), a screen door (!), luggage, boxes of cancelled checks from the 70s and a box of my husband’s boyhood junk.
Here’s what it all had in common: it was trash. The only things we saved were a metal bank shaped like an antique car from the People’s Bank and two baseball mitts. Everything else went in the trash pile. Oh, some of it was probably salvageable, but none of it was valuable.
It made me think about all the junk I have stowed away in my personal attic. Past hurts, rejections, insults real and imagined, glories real and imagined, empty dreams, sins long forgiven, lots of luggage–er–baggage. Just like my in-laws, I considered each and every piece invaluable when I tucked it away. But when I drag it through the dust and pull it out into the sunlight I can see it’s . . . trash.
The new year is right around the corner. I say it’s time to clear out our attics. Time to build an imaginary bonfire of old hurts and useless baggage. I’m betting it will make a glorious blaze.
Q4U- What do you need to get out of your attic?