Clearing Spaces Mission #2 ( a little late)

The second mission has been accomplished! The file cabinet drawers have been de-cluttered, the two that belong to me that is. I don't dare de-clutter M's. I don't think he will appreciate my throwing out any of his precious papers.

It took me two days, mostly because there was a lot of articles that I wanted to thin out. Actually, it was like taking a walk through the things that have interested or preoccupied me in the last 10 years or so.:

• There were the articles on motherhood. The ones that I read to convince myself that I was doing the right thing staying at home. The ones that I could throw away. They have accomplish their purpose. I no longer feel ambivalent about my vocation. I no longer need to convince myself of the worth of what I am doing.
  
• There were articles from when I was trying to get a degree on Pastoral Ministry from a too-liberal-for-me program. Those I threw out without thinking much about it, maybe just a slight surprise at why I have ditched them earlier.
• There were copies of homilies I had requested from a former pastor because at the time they touched me, taught me or meant something to me. They also have fulfilled their purpose because as I read through some of them, I couldn't figure out what was it that they meant to me.
• There were the myriad of homeschooling articles that I don't longer need because I am set in how I home school and don't need more articles about methods or techniques.
• And then there was all the articles that have been made obsolete by Google. I don't need to keep hard copies when on the Internet they are just a click away.

Of course, there were also those that I couldn't part with. There are Fr. Alonso's lectures. There were those articles on faith issues that I want to someday share with my children. There are those old photocopied things from when I was a psychologist. Things that, maybe, one day I'll re-read to rekindle the love for my profession (just maybe). There are a small number of People of Praise articles that chronicle some aspect of our community's history. And there are the numerous reading list that I have managed to collect, that are probably on the obsolete category, but since I love lists, I couldn't throw them away.

This mission had an unexpected benefit: a walk into my past and an opportunity for some "philosophizing" (which I like ) :-)