Connecting to the Past to Find your Future

Connecting to the Past to Find your Future

Downsizing-sharing past with friends

Most of the boxes are packed and labeled and ready for their new home. I spent the weekend trying to follow my own advice on packing—and purging, which had me thinking about the continuum of my life, and how one thing leads to the next, and how everything is connected.

In fact, I had to smile when I ran into an old (aka “long-time”) friend in our neighborhood hardware store. She is also packing her son to head to college next year. She was buying packing tape and thanked me for my recent post suggesting that she buy the higher quality tape that doesn’t get twisted and mangled. We spent some time chatting at the checkout…about our kids, our impending empty nest and our plans for the future.  We said goodbye (a word I am beginning to dread) and promised to stay in touch.

I found myself sitting in my car for a while after that in the hardware parking lot — perhaps it was heat stroke –but I think it was more of an Oprah “ah-hah” moment.  Yes—I am on a personal journey finding my balance and getting my “mo-jo” back to start the next chapter in a new city.

But what struck me in that simple moment in the parking lot is: you don’t lose your past to find your future.  It is all connected.

Whether it is the “stuff” we have accumulated, or the friends who have lifted us up– or knocked us down—or the occasional acquaintance at the hardware store— it is our collected “stuff” that makes us who we are.

By the time we hit our 50-somethings—we need to embrace our past. It’s not starting over. It’s more like jump starting the link to re-building. It’s every minute of our past that allows us to move forward.

Look—I didn’t just land here as a 50 year old mother of four. Gray roots come with time.

And still, pondering life in that hardware store parking lot…

What are the lessons learned? What matters most? Who matters most? Did we learn from our mis-steps or mistakes? By now, our lives are full of what is, what was, and what if’s.  I suggest we cherish them, remember them and pack them in our boxes. It is our past that allows our story to move forward.

And with that, an idea for a 6th “P.’ Presenting, in the true sense of giving presents. For those things I’ve kept because they represent special moments with individuals whose lives I have touched and who have touched mine, I have wrapped them with a note. “Moving to Chicago, and just couldn’t bear to purge this, but no space to pack it, so I am sending it to you, treasuring this item because it reminds me of our experiences together.

I was happy to see my old friend—happy to know that she now has the best unwrinkled packing tape. Happy to know her story too.  It’s also good to know she has friends for me to meet in Chicago. Her friends will know friends, and a new beginning begins. On and on.. It is our past that will lead us to what is next…

Journey on with me, and share your tales from the road.

Lauren
Chesley@interculturaltalk.com

Unapologetically You Post-50. Reinvention, Lifestyle, Relationships.

1Comment
  • Claudia
    Posted at 20:22h, 13 August Reply

    Couldn’t agree more! As I get older & face new challenges that I don’t think I can’t handle, I think back to something where I made it through and it gives me perspective and strength.

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