Detachment

I understand the whole idea of detachment, and I'm a big fan of it, but I've never been good at putting it into action. I've had a lot of plans for downsizing, but until lately I've not put them into practice.

Then my priest was transferred. Watching him that last month, I learned a lot.

His schedule was full. In addition to all the stuff he normally does, he now had to learn about his new parish and meet with our new priest. Along with that, everyone from our rather large parish wanted to meet with him before he left. (In his last weeks I managed two appointments with him myself. When I made the second one I told him I needed a rather large favor, and I knew he was busy. His gracious response was, "I'm not busy.")

He had such limited time to pack. How did he do it?

It helps that he has very few possessions. He has talked about that in the past, and I could see it was true. There was no U-Haul needed for moving; just his sub-compact car and a relative's car. He didn't need days to pack because there just wasn't much to pack.

It reminded me of when I was a college student and could quite literally move in hours.

Since he left, I'm spending time filling boxes and bags. The bags are garbage. Boxes are going to various places, such as the library and charities.

It's been difficult for me. There are memories attached to many of these things. Yet it's worth it. My goal is to have about what I had in college. That was more than enough for me at that time, and it will be again.

Now I have to add a "proud mom" moment. My daughter, at age 18, is also downsizing. I never said a word. It's a decision she made on her own.

What Father did is classic preaching by example. He'll probably never know it, but even his last moments with us counted.