Stuff

For all the notions of people talking about not owning anything and letting go of all possessions, I am here to say that stuff matters to me. Objects from the past, sheets you used to sleep on, a bracelet a friend gave you from years ago, familiar smelling things, cookbooks, jeans that you have worn many times. These things hold individual spaces in my heart. This excludes objects that were never really meaningful that have no history. I have had 2 years in Perú with very few of these things, and I missed them.

…

Wait… I think I just figured it out. I think what I have wanted and needed are dual senses of history and comfort. Objects incite smells, colors, tastes of a history of a previous previous life. Lima is blooming with tropical possibility in my life, but it is also very, very new. So, I brought a ton of things on the plane, a major inconvenience. But I am here with a familiar coffee cup, and I feel better.