In the last month, while my son has been on holiday with his partner, I've had space to realize a lot of things:
I don't want a big house and a yard: the upkeep and repairs we've had to do over the last 10 years have convinced me that I never want to do this again. We don't entertain more than once a year (more on that later), so we have no need for a formal sitting room or dining room; we never actually DO anything in the yard, and I'm tired of shoveling walks in the winter and desperately fighting watering restrictions in the summer -- the original owner planted many fruit trees and grape vines, and all of the fruit is something I either dislike or am allergic to, but in this neighborhood it adds a tremendous amount to the character of the place -- it was terrific when our son was small and our house was the one every kid in the neighborhood came to, but he's a senior at university and will probably be moving out soon. Which brings us to --
I don't want to live in the US any more. I'll always respect the country of my birth, but our friends and a good job offer are waiting for us overseas. I've been a very responsible person since the age of 11 (family medical issues meant I shouldered caretaking early in my life), and I'm grateful for all I've learned from it, but now it's time for me to do what I want -- and what I want is time to explore the world with my husband, with enough work to keep us fed and sheltered. I'm looking at everything in the house with the thought of "Are you willing to pay to ship this across the pond?" and if the answer is "Nope", in many cases I've decided to get rid of it now rather than waiting another year.
I've learned (with help from several people on this forum! *grin*) that it is okay to have one or two hobbies I love, and let all the rest of it go, "sunk costs" be damned. The second hobby may turn into a career if my teachers think it would be a good fit, and the first doesn't require as much space as I'd previously thought.
Two or three beautiful things mean more to me than shelves full of tat: when I look at the blue matcha bowl my SIL brought me from Osaka, I remember her telling me how she had gone with friends to pick out the one that would be perfect for her "elder sister", and the day we spent in a local teahouse trying different blends until we found just the right one . . . there aren't many things I own that are that significant, and why would I put heaps of lesser things on the shelf with it?
