we were supposed to pedal away this morning for the start of our cross-country journey. however, we’ve encountered some obstacles.
on tuesday, we moved out of our apartment in dc. it was the worst of all worst moving days. i know all moving days are horrible and i feel like i say that it’s the worst every time but this one was actually the worst. we were physically moving for 16 hours. throughout those 16 hours, we were appalled by the amount of stuff we had accumulated. we were humbled by our greed and attachments to these material possessions — what IS all this stuff?! and why are we moving it to seattle if we never use it?!
i know i get attached to things because of the memories that go along with the items — memories of sitting in certain chairs drinking coffee out of certain mugs with certain people. i love those happy thoughts that i think of later when sitting in the same chair. but does it mean that i need to hold onto the chair/coffee mug/table/coaster? if i no longer have those things, will i lose the memory as well? i don’t think that’s how our brains function…..
but how can we make sure to hold onto the most important memories and lessons and let go of what doesn’t matter? how do we carry the good stuff with us? where is the balance between purging and hoarding?! because david and i definitely haven’t found it.
so anyway, we had to shed some belongings that wouldn’t fit in our moving pods. there was no time to prioritize really so we just had to let go of stuff. and thinking back on those moments, i feel refreshed. and i’m also thankful that our stuff can sit for 2+ months while we live happily without it. i’m really excited to live for a while without all of our things. i’m hoping we’ll learn a little bit about what is really important which will make shedding some more things in seattle a bit easier.
also from those 16 hours of physical movement on tuesday, our bodies are achy, injured, and exhausted. we needed more time to recover before enjoying any sort of bike ride. we hurt all over but david’s knee is a specific concern. it hurts him quite a lot to pedal a bike at the moment so that’s a bit of a problem for our planned journey. we are using some of our built-in buffer time to rest and hope the issues resolve themselves. we’re trying to be patient and not let the calendar dictate our schedule. we’re taking it a day at a time.
my version of the real world 