TheBanyanTree: No more hoarding...I think!

[Anita Coia]

The recent discussion on the Tree about keeping old diaries and calendars
has led me to reflect on my own collecting habits. I don't keep calendars or
diaries any more; I have accepted that I never go back and look at them, and
all the relevant information on them is carried forward onto the new year's
calendars and diaries.

 

However, one thing I can't seem to let go of is all the bits and pieces of
writing I have done over the years, including the unfinished pieces. Scraps
of writing that will never grow into something worth publishing languish in
notebooks in my study. Bits of too-personal-to-ever-show-ANYONE writing are
also hidden in there. 

 

I do actually flip through some of these collections of stored words from
time to time, usually when I am trying to clean out my study, and invariably
they get put back in their original location.  I actually enjoy rereading
them, purely, I think, because they remind me of times in my life that I
have forgotten, and feelings I have moved away from.  I guess they form a
disjointed journal of moments in my life; not necessarily even the key
moments. 

 

There is also the work material that has accumulated. No-one ever, I find,
asks to have a look at work you have done fifteen years before - not in the
corporate world. Much of the time they barely even check your references!  I
need to go through this stuff and keep the best examples of each style of
writing or planning, and throw out the rest.  This will clear a good bit of
room in my filing cabinet and give the recycling bin a good workout. 

 

I think I will have to allow myself a week to do this job - to allow for the
inevitable forays down memory lane!  My husband will be so pleased. J

 

Anita