We’re Too Old to Need Trophies as Proof of a Life Well-Lived

Did you and I waste the time we were given?

Once again, the shipping boxes are piling up in my garage. The decision’s made: the house goes up for sale next spring. I’d have sold it this year but for two foot surgeries which potholed my spring and summer, so I won’t be fully healed and mobile until late August.

Meanwhile, downsizing. Again. I’ve never stopped- but this time, it’s a doozy.

For all of us who have too many emotional ties to things like Those Size Two Pants We Can’t Get Up Past Our Knees, That Baseball Trophy I Got in High School and all the stories that are Velcroed to pieces of our past, downsizing is deep personal work.

Lots of us have written about it. Lots of tips, tricks and suggestions. Right.

The problem is that there is, inevitably, a time when we come face-to-face with lies we keep telling ourselves about our future, even when the light that is our future becomes narrowed by the crushing realities of time, age and, perhaps, limited ability.

Last February I headed south to Ecuador on a fact-finding trip to determine if that’s where I need to be. Haven’t decided yet. I head back in November to do more research.