17 years ago (April 2001 to be exact) I was writing on a site called "Themestream". This is what I wrote:
Good Morning to all of you out there who might also be awake at 3 am! Teela, Molly, and Thibbadeaux (our 3 cats - all deceased now in 2018) surround me with their love and support even at this early hour. Molly is jabbing at Teela trying to get her to play. Thibs is lolling around... just being cute.
The theme of this post is 'focusing on the present'. I guess one can't get any more present than 3 am. It's an odd time - too early to actually do anything and almost too late to try to get back to sleep. So when all else fails, I write.
I could use this time to dust my china cabinets, you know the ones that contain all the little treasures you collect from friends or travel (or traveling friends). I have 3 (china cabinets, not friends) I'm sure it must be these wee hours of the morning that are making me silly. It takes me all day to lovingly go through even one cabinet as I tend to reminisce on each item as it is dusted and carefully rearranged.
Most of my treasures consist of a hodge podge of pretty china cups and saucers picked up in second shops in England or France, a lovely Lladro figure from Harrrod's, a few Waterford pieces from our trip to Ireland, and small seal and puffin figurines picked up on the Orkney Islands .
Well, I'm probably too knackered (is that the right word? hopefully it means tired and silly) to dust anything at this hour without breaking it, so I'll sack that idea.
Well, it's now 2018 and I still have the occasional 3am wake up call. It doesn't happen often (thank goodness), but it does happen. And although the remaining cats here now are Tux, Julie, and Ghost... they react pretty much the same as our others did back then. They are happy to see me up at strange hours and generally join me in whatever endeavor I choose.
My 3 China cabinets have now been reduced to one - having given one to my daughter and another to a friend. And as you all well know - as we age, we need to simplify and downsize. However, a few things were kept...
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| Lladro from Harrod's |
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| Aynsley cup from second shop |
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| puffin and seal from Orkney Islands |
These too will go to my daughter (or a grand daughter) eventually.
But for now I will continue to dust them and enjoy the memories they bring forth.
I'm sure that many of you out there do the same.
It has become a little easier to go through things and sort. I've been using these questions:
1. Do I need this?
2. Do I want this?
3. Do my kids want this?
4. Would anyone want this?
If all answers are no, it goes into the trash.
Do you have a system that works for you?