I’ve been listing a lot on Facebook Marketplace, piecing out 25 years of accumulated stuff… one piece at a time. Well, actually, some are boxes full of stuff, but you get the idea..
I’ve been meeting people I never would have crossed paths with otherwise. But are all these connections really just by chance? I’m starting to think each and every one of them has happened for a reason.
Take Sherry, who bought one of my hummingbird feeders. She has the same passion for hummingbirds that I do. I would spend hours watching them, feeding them, and making sure they had enough “fuel” to make their migration south every fall.
When I’m gone, who will take care of them?
Well… Sherry will!
She is actually coming back this weekend so I can give her a few things to help her become the guardian of my feathered friends after I leave.
Then there was Carol, who came to buy a wall pocket. We stood talking about life for an hour, losing people we love, and our crazy plan to sell everything and hit the road. Before she left, she asked if I liked grapes.
What a random question…
But I told her the only grapes I really love are Concord grapes, and you just can’t find those around here.
She opened her trunk.
There sat a huge box of Concord grapes she had gotten from the Amish… which she graciously shared with me.
What are the chances? I don’t know anyone else, besides my daughter, who loves Concord grapes.
Next, Kristen came for some old cast iron coat hooks that neither one of us really knew what to do with. Somehow, our conversation wandered from antiques to plants. I told her about the irises in my yard that originally belonged to my grandfather and that I’ve carried from house to house for years.
I can’t take them with me in an RV.
She offered to take them.
And even better, she offered to send me pictures every year when they bloom.
Then there was Cathy, a nurse practitioner who came for some McCoy pottery. She ended up taking a large terracotta pot that had belonged to my mom. It isn’t perfect anymore, but it mattered to me because it was hers.
Later, she wrote to tell me that the pot now had a story and that someday she would share that story with her daughter.
That meant more to me than she probably realized.
Getting rid of a lifetime of things isn’t always easy. But somehow, mixed in with all the Marketplace messages, boxes, wrapping paper, and strangers pulling into our driveway, there have been these little moments of connection.
And maybe that is one of the unexpected gifts of downsizing.
Cathy said something to me that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about:
“People do not cross paths by chance.”
After the people I’ve met lately, I’m starting to think she might be right.
Each one has made letting go a little easier.
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