Actually, I'm avoiding what I'm supposed to be doing - PACKING!
In a little over a week, we'll start moving all our belongings into a friend's house for storage while we're away for six months. I'm supposed to be sifting, sorting, eliminating and packing various groups of things like our medicine box, my growing pile of assorted bags (I have a bag addiction), kitchen gadgets and the most dreaded filing cabinet.
Why does it feel like instead of making our piles grow smaller, they're just getting bigger.
My piles are labeled: (1) Pack for storage, (2) Into suitcases for America and (3) Giveaway.
But then I've got sub-piles, like under Giveaway, I've got: (a) Giveaway to expats and (b) Giveaway to local friends. - i.e. our Myanmar friends wouldn't know what to do with a bottle of pepto bismal, but for our American friends, it's a valued possession.
On top of that, I've got one child who just wants to give everything away, rather than have to pack anything. The other day, Miá said to me, "Mom, can I just give away all my pillows and blankets so that I don't have to pack them?"
To which I replied, "Well, what are you going to use when we get back?"
She smartly retorted with a smirk, "We can just buy all new when we return!"
My other child, however, doesn't want to give anything away.
"Zoë, you haven't worn those shorts in a year," I said.
"They don't fit me anymore," was her reply.
"Then let's give them away to someone who can wear them," I reasoned.
"Aww, but they're soooo cute!" she whined.
It feels like an uphill battle, everywhere I turn.
And just when I think I've got one corner cleaned out, I find another box of junk waiting its turn.
I recognize that part of the problem is the lifestyle we lead.
We don't have access to most Western items, so if we get the chance to purchase something that we think we might at some point use in the next three years, we buy it. Batteries are a good example. We have a ton of every variety stored up, and now most of them have gone bad. So I'm staring a big box of old, unusable batteries and I think to myself, "How did this happen?"
Those will end up going in my fourth pile: the garbage.
So instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm sitting at my desk drinking coffee and writing a blog. Actually, I wrote a poem first, but that inspired the blog.
Hmmm, what else can I do to avoid what I really need to do?
by Julie Johnson
Should it stay or should it go?
What to do, I just don't know.
Clothes and shoes, books and gadgets
Acquiring things has become a habit.
In less than a month this place has to be empty.
Our things will be gone, but we leave behind great memories.
Friends, family, food and fun,
This apartment has been full of love.
Instead of filling boxes, I sit here scrawling
Because what follows packing is a lot of hauling.
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