This time of year, many are traveling to garden centers, to buy plants and potting items--hoping to refresh homes, backyards, lawns, and front porches--also refreshes our well-being with promises of a better tomorrow.

While in the backyard, checking for a few rocks to place around a fresh new butterfly bush, memories always flood my mind of my inability to not fill my pockets with rocks from the canyon area I used to own near my former country home. Every time one of my grandsons walked to the canyon with me, we’d look for arrowheads and interesting shaped rocks to bring back to the house. These excursions resulted in filling baskets, flowerpots, and flowerbeds with these ‘antique’ treasures. But now they’re not cluttering my home, they were strewn outdoors to improve the landscaping.

Even on trips to either Colorado or Tennessee to see relatives, when James and I would stop by beautiful roadside flowing brooks, we’d pick up a large rock or two to take home. Now, I see those nice-size baby boulders (just kidding) in my flowerbeds and think of James being strong enough to pick up one or two for souvenirs. Later friends/relatives warned us we could have been fined for that--especially the one from Pike’s Peak. (We’re country folks. We looked at it as just transferring beauty from one place to another.)

Seeing the small rock that looks like it’s made up of tiny pebbles melded together, probably from a volcanic event in Hawaii, instantly reminds me of Maui--one of the most beautiful places I’ve been (with my boss and secretary of Seminole’s college). So, I would think keeping things that still add beauty to my home is a good enough reason, as long as they don’t become clutter. While shopping at Walmart, I passed by a variety of coloring books, and in a second I was reminded of just how much, as a child, I was thrilled to get those kinds of books for birthdays and Christmas. They didn’t have monsters, superheroes, or foreign characters in them to color. Pages were filled with drawings of varied animals, children, flowers, and country scenes to color. Even the smell of crayons still lift my spirits. I have kept one coloring book for almost 70 years--but only one.

I still keep a few dolls from my childhood. Dolls were always special to me. I dreamed of one day being a mother when my baby doll ‘became’ a real baby.’ I loved those years of being a stay-at-home mom with our 3 kids. Their generation (especially the 2 girls) didn’t play with dolls as much as I did that reflect a desire to becoming only a stay-athome mother. I looked forward to having a husband as the breadwinner, but in the next generation both husband and wife work. Times change in every generation.

Recently I participated in a garage sale with my daughter, Scarlette, and parted with things I’d kept for decades. Because a lot of my stuff was stored since I moved into a smaller house, it became easier for me to let them go. I had kept hanging on to some things, not because I needed them, but because they linked me to past memories. Is that enough of a reason to hang on to ‘stuff?’ No. As long as I have a memory, that has to be enough, and if I lose my memory some day, those things would be meaningless anyway. My generation still have a collection of old photo albums for recalling memories. Nowadays, pictures are stored on phones for easy access. That’s a good thing since they can’t wind up in boxes or in collections of albums, stored away.

Now I’ll discuss one of my favorite collections--at one time. I once had about 150 dolls. But they were displayed away in a big, long glass cabinet in an extra bedroom, hardly seen. When I heard a college employee had adopted children from a Korean orphanage, I asked the new mother if that orphanage would accept some of these dolls. She came to my home to see the collection and chose about 50 to 75 of the dolls to take to the orphanage since they were going to Korea again soon.Nothing could describe what it felt like to know those dolls would go to ones who had so little.

My biggest collection, however, was of books-over 1,000. So, when I retired from Seminole State College, I had to pack up about 600 of those books from shelves in my office and took home. It was then that I sold over $1,000 worth of books online. Then, I checked out several small schools who could use some of them in their libraries. I took several trunkfuls in my car to the schools. They included classics, reference books, biographies, etc.--appropriate for school libraries.

After all that, today I still have about 700 books! Okay, so I’ll confess. I’m an avid reader and still order books that I want to read. ( I did teach literature and English.) I don’t apologize because reading helps give me ideas as I continue writing these Sunday columns. Yes, I used to keep books just because I enjoyed reading them, but then, I disciplined myself to let them go if I didn’t plan on reading them again. If I enjoyed them so much, I then felt good knowing I’m giving others the opportunity to read a good book.

Perhaps, this walk down memory lane will encourage readers to ask themselves if they keep hanging on to too much just because they bring back memories, why not reconsider other options. If feeling overblessed to a place your stuff is or has become clutter, then think about sharing. Just a suggestion. Have a blessed week!