My 3 Things

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Kara wrote about 5 things that are super meaningful to her.  It was at a time when we were just finding out the details of moving to San Francisco, and I knew for sure that I would be going through all my possessions to decide what truly mattered enough to move them across the country.

I was later challenged by a friend as to why we don't just sell everything and start fresh, and I spent a lot of time mulling it over.  As many of you know, I'm pretty passionate about simplicity.... I even used to write for the 100 Thing Challenge blog about how fleeting our stuff is and how much deeper meaning we find when we let go of material possessions in order to focus on the lasting impact our lives can make.  So, it was a little strange to find myself wrestling so intensely with the concept of that release.

When it comes down to it, I found there were really only a handful of things that I feel deeply connected to.  Sure, we'll still keep some of our stuff when we move... mostly because it just takes too much time and energy to start fresh and because the one most meaningful possession that I have isn't something that I can just replace.

1. My piano

There's a story behind this piano.  And perhaps if I didn't use it daily, I could get over the story and move away from keeping a large item simply for sentimental purposes.  But the truth is that this piano was meaningful to my mom and it was important to her that one of her children play piano.  Fortunately for me, I was the youngest, and therefore, it fell on me after the other two kids wanted to stop taking lessons.  I learned to play the piano on this instrument - one that she prayed for as a young mom.  Many hours of my young life were seated here with fingers gliding, stumbling, sometimes running across the solid, heavy keys.  I learned the famous classical pieces, which I rarely play these days.  These days, it's the songs that I wish I'd written - Rich Mullins, Sarah McLachlan, Ben Folds, even Jimmy Eats World... acoustic versions of whatever song pulls on my emotions allowing me a retreat from the stress of existence.  I can undoubtedly say that this piano is the sole reason that we are hiring a moving company to go ahead and ship some of our belongings instead of starting from scratch.  Smaller things can be mailed.  Everything else can be replaced, but there is no substitute for this piano.

2.  My pictures

Another, much smaller item that is significant to me is the photo album of my wedding and anniversary photos.  Somewhere we might have backups, but if we do, it was at least 3 computers ago, and who knows if they're stuck on the hard drive that I didn't get to clean off before our last machine bit the dust.  So, these pictures by Jordan Barclay are incredibly meaningful to me.  

3.  This portrait 

I'm a word person.  But sometimes, words aren't enough to really express something.  When The Passion of the Christ first came out, it was a burden on my heart.  There were a lot of thoughts that went through my mind.... a lot of pain and a lot of gratefulness.  And try as I may I couldn't craft a response that did justice for the layers of contemplation happening within me.  So, I busted out (and dusted off) the art supplies to create this contour drawing of Jesus.  I look at it and remember that there's a God that loves me enough to suffer for my sake, and also that somewhere underneath all the momhood, there's an artist in me.

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