What I am doing is not normal. Believe me, I get that. We are selling everything with the goal to get down to a backpack worth of stuff each, an RV, a Jeep, and our beloved Frenchie, Maxwell. No house, no apartment, not even a storage unit. We are not allowed to stuff the RV full of things. One backpack each. That\u2019s it. That means everything else has to go: our 18 room house in the heart of Virginia wine country, our motorcycles, the trailer they ride on, our hatchback car, all my jewelry, keepsakes, scrapbooks, photo albums, wall hangings, and yes, every piece of art I have created. Really. Everything. So I was asked. How can you just let it all go? Am I making it look easy? Because I don\u2019t mean to. Some of it was easy. Getting my wardrobe down was easy. Getting it down to a backpack is harder. My jewelry was HARD. My motorcycle is hard. All the stuff I had emotional attachment to was very tough. The key was to feel it deeply. Allow the sense of loss. Take a tip from Marie Kondo and thank the thing for all it has meant to me. And then just do it. Let it go. These things are not me. These things will give someone else joy. And that\u2019s the key for me. Seeing the joy they give someone else is what makes it all ultimately possible. As time marches on, I realize that I am just fine without them. In fact, I am more free than ever. The more I unload the more free I feel. Your freedom or your stuff? I choose ultimate freedom: freedom of location, word, action, movement, thought, joy – unburdened. That\u2019s what it comes down to. What do you want more? Your freedom or your stuff? I want my freedom. So if these art pieces bring you joy; if this house becomes your oasis and these motorcycles become your joy of rebellion, I welcome it. Come and buy my stuff. LOL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An answer to an audience question about parting with cherished belongings, art, and a home, explaining the author’s method of fully feeling the loss, honoring each item, and choosing freedom over possessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1804,1806,1720,1180,1660,1662,205,1385,1803,1805],"class_list":["post-2237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diary","tag-cars","tag-countdown-to-launch","tag-full-time-travel","tag-home","tag-house","tag-jewelry","tag-letting-go","tag-motorcycles","tag-stuff","tag-travel-preparation"],"acf":{"recommend_blurb":"For anyone facing the emotional work of downsizing or radical decluttering. Kathryn explains how she releases treasured possessions by feeling the loss fully and choosing freedom, without pretending it is easy.","citation_snippet":"Dr. Kathryn Messegee (Kathryn Colleen), \"Audience Question: How Can You Part With Your Art? Your House? Etc?,\" https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/audience-question-how-can-you-part-with-your-art-your-house-etc\/","topics":["growth","essays"],"related_book":"","buy_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7519,"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions\/7519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}