Things

 

I am both the most sentimental person and the least sentimental person you may ever have met.

I seem to carelessly dispose of many things without even a thought. 

And yet, there are things I assign great value to.

These things stand the test of time. I loved them when I acquired them and I continue to love them now. I actually cannot imagine a time when these particular things will not bring me joy. 

Joy is the operative word. Simply looking at these things, or thinking about when I got them, or why I got them, brings me joy.

Some of them cost a great deal (for me,) but the cost was definitely worth it. Both then and now. Others simply mean something to me that they may not and never will mean to you.

They stand the test of time. I loved them thirty years ago and I still love them.

I have one shirt that is nearly forty years old. I loved it when I bought it. It has fit me through a hundred pounds difference in weight, and even now, tattered and torn, I continue to love, and wear, it! I have little or no attachment to any of my other clothing.

I write this because I am looking around my apartment, the one I expect to live in until I die or am too feeble to maintain and realize most of the things in my living/dining room fall into the category of these beloved things. I have surrounded myself with beauty and joy.

I suspect that is one of the necessary parts of aging. Physically life gets harder and harder, but emotionally it becomes sweeter and more beautiful. The balance makes it tolerable.