The arrival of the lift, if not to our house yet, makes me think a lot about living with less. When packing the lift it was all about "what will we need there? what don't they have there? what can we get cheaper here? what will we never be able to get in Israel again?" We ran around like lunatics trying to buy out whole stores like BJ's, Target and Walmart, with endless cries of, "what if they don't have this there?!"
Three weeks later and I don't know how many time zones different, all that has changed. It's amazing (truly amazing) to see how little we can live with; how much we can do without. I am now actually dreading the arrival of our things. I don't need/want 3/4 of that junk stuff. The only thing that we really have been feeling the lack of are seforim and english books, MY BED! and some personal items like photographs, toys, etc.
I now imagine our bright airy apartment being filled tomorrow or the next day with ominous dark boxes in every corner, filled with things that we would never miss but once we open the boxes will feel we can't do without.
I was telling a friend that I am trying to get up the guts to put some of those boxes in the trash without even opening them first. Not being weighed down by all of that is surprisingly liberating. I feel thousands of pounds, ok, kilos, lighter. Happier.
There's gotta be a tremendous lesson here and it's interesting that it becomes much clearer here in Eretz Yisrael where focusing on things that are most important is so much easier. I guess the real idea is to think about what we really need and what it is that we can most take with us wherever we are going, where there are no suitcases, no boxes, no stuff to weigh us down. Those things that can and do come with us are those that matter most.
Happy Packing :)
