On floods and things

So we found out last night we’re officially on ‘flood alert’. What this means in itself is unclear but it got us talking about our plans should the worst happen.

When we were looking at moving all the irreplaceable stuff like photos, memory books etc. upstairs I wanted to start moving everything…the hubs said (and I quote) ‘not to worry about the rest of the junk’ – I immediately got really offended…does he seriously think the rest of our carefully curated dining set, crystal stuff we got for wedding presents, heirlooms from grand, and great grandparents, and you know all our books and things are all JUNK. GAH! That’s not junk, to me that’s the story of us, it documents our life together, and our life before ‘us’ was a thing. I’d be devastated to lose the stuff.  

This obviously got us talking about what is important and why…I’ve always thought I was fairly separated from my material things, you know, sure I love a good pair of shoes, or something sparkly but I’m not attached to these things…am I?

He has a really clear, really defined line between the ‘junk’ and the rest. Turns out I do not. I was thinking how terrible it would be to find all the gorgeous china we were gifted for our wedding and would never be able to afford to replace was floating around or smashed to bits, or how sad it would be for me to have nothing to pass down to my tiny human and his tiny humans from their great great grandparents. That these things do matter and are important.

And I sat there stewing and I looked for the reasons why we saw this so differently (the why is VERY important to me) and why I bothered having nice things if they were regarded as ‘junk’ by the person who should be enjoying them with me.

Then it clicked. They are just things. You don’t enjoy the things, you enjoy the experiences while you use the things maybe. Things can be replaced. Maybe we won’t be able to have the exact china we got as gifts for our wedding, but that’s ok, we’ve had awesome dinner parties and great get-togethers using them and the memories from those times are what is important. And those things didn’t happen, nor were they great because of the dishes. They were great because of the family and friends and people that we shared them with. And maybe it would be sad for the tiny human to not inherit his great great grandpas decanter but actually what is important are the stories and pictures and memories passed down to him.

So you know, if we do have flood waters lapping at our door…if the sewage does start to seep (EW!) we’ll have all the irreplaceable pictures stored safely. But the most important thing is that the three of us will be safe and sound and we’ll be able to share stories and spend time with people who help us make the memories and have the experiences that do truly matter.

a xxx