What if it were easy, desirable even, to let things go and set a new course?
(Emptying our attic showed me it can be.)
The Big Move
It’s not so far relocating to France from the UK, but it felt like a big move. Shortly after we’d arrived most of our packing boxes went straight into the attic of our new (to us) house, unopened. The seriously old and neglected house was going to get worse before it got better. Unpacking would have to wait.
Years passed. The boxes stayed put.
Progress on renovation was (gah – who am I kidding – IS) slow. What with working, settling into living somewhere different, learning French and finding our feet, the house received our attention only as time and resources allowed.
My Mind is an Attic (apparently)
Today progress is ongoing and we still have stuff in the attic, but nowhere near as much because we had to empty it as the roof was leaking. A great opportunity to sort though everything, trim down, give away and throw out. Emptying it was surprisingly quick and easy. It was cleansing and liberating. We felt we’d shed a burden, we’d moved on.
Later, enjoying an aperitif in the garden with my husband, we talked about clearing out the attic as a metaphor for the mind. In the same way that it was completely ok to say goodbye to all that stuff in the attic, I could see how some of the thoughts I’d been holding on to had outlived their usefulness, too.
Somewhere along the line I’d stopped treating those thoughts as important. I’d let them go without realising it and found more space than I was expecting in my attic-mind.
More space for setting the new course that I was now on.
If I’m not careful, not aware, habitual thoughts can masquerade as our moral compass and lead us in the wrong, or at least an unhelpful, direction.
The French have a saying “ne pas perdre le nord” which means don’t lose your north. Right now I like the idea of not getting caught up in an old north or a north that’s a bit out of whack.
Now, what can I tidy up next?!