The "Kiss" Off: My 100 Item Update

About three weeks ago, I posted about my own personal 100 Item Challenge. This was originally intended to help me along with the physical part of my eventual move out of my house. I’ve found it to be much more helpful with my emotional preparation though.  It’s been oddly cathartic, and I’ve really enjoyed giving away items that don’t have the best memories attached to them for me, but hopefully they will bring joy and good memories to the next person.  Plus, I’m down one chiminea, two pictures, 23 pair of jeans and a bunch of professional clothes from my “past life”.  In my eyes, that equates to at least three boxes, two pictures that would go from the attic here to the attic there and a chiminea that got red dust on me every time I looked at it.  Not to mention it had a big star and horseshoe on it, with the word “Texas”. And clearly any short sighted goal I had to move to Texas in those five minutes I spent deliberating to buy it have flown out the window.  I haven’t seen any chiminea’s with “Pennsylvania” emblazoned on it. Can’t imagine why not.  



For instance, this story really demonstrates how this process has helped me come full circle: Many years ago, a close friend of mine gave my ex-husband and I a print of “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt for our engagement present. She knew that it had been on the front of the first card he had ever given me, when we were 21 years old.  Fast forward thirteen or so years. She and I are no longer friends and he and I are broken up. And that picture was still floating around. I don’t harbor a grudge, and I don’t look back at my marriage with any regret. I don’t, however, need constant reminders of it. So I took a picture and posted it on my trusty go to site: Craigslist.  And sure enough, in a matter of hours someone had committed to it and said she would drive up the next day to pick it up.

Sure enough, the next day the young woman arrived with her small son in tow. I went out to meet her so my ferocious guard dogs wouldn’t flip out. I introduced myself, put the picture into her back seat next to her sleeping little boy and chatted with her for just a few moments. Nothing big, just smiled and sent her off with a wave and a picture that needed a new lease on life.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email from her later that day. She explained that she and her family had recently moved to Philly, and that I was the nicest person she’d met so far.  She had been here for almost two months! I explained that I thought she was exactly where she was meant to be, and I assured her that Philly got better. I sincerely hope this last part is true…Philly can be a tough town!

How great it was to give away a sentimental item that had gone from a shiny sparkly memory to a dull and rough one. Now it was in a new house, gathering new appreciation and hopefully having an opportunity to redeem itself in the memory department. And along the way, I got to make someone happy, feel good about giving something away and make a human connection.  And all it took was a smile, a recycled picture and a few small moments out of my day to say “Hello, how are you?”

No big deal, right? When I run out in my yoga pants the next time, with my hair all wonky and no makeup on and just basically want to hide my sleepy face, I will still remember to take a second to stop and smile and say hello. Sometimes it’s all that stranger needs to keep her chin up in a new town, or to put in one more day that she didn’t think she wanted to put in. I’ll remember it the next time I am speaking with a waitress who tells me the cook is out of just what I fiercely wanted at the moment (that was pork roll, this last Sunday), because she’s likely just there to feed her family or to make some extra money towards her goals. And I’ll remember it the next time I deal with a stranger that I never know their own unique story, they could be looking to make a fresh start and shed some old memories like I am. And I hope in their memory and my own, I’ve got a big, warm smile on my face.