What would you do if you lost all your possessions?

Difficult as one might believe.

Sure, possessions lost in a natural disaster hit differently than possessions one had to relinquish by chance or choice.

If I were to lose all of my possessions in a natural disaster – I would be devastated, momentarily, and then I would move on with my life and rebuild.

The closest thing I have been through akin to a natural disaster-level of severity would have been my recent move from Florida to Pennsylvania.

I was not fleeing a hurricane, no. I was returning home after being cast out post-dissolution of marriage. I had brought every thing that I owned to Florida, and when it came time to move home – I had no way of transporting most of it. We had used a 6 meter trailer hitched to the bumper of our Escalade to bring my ex-husband and my own possessions down. Even still, we had to leave things behind.

His solution to help me get my possessions back home to Pennsylvania was to choose the things I enjoy the most and pack them. We then turned up at a Best Buy to ship out roughly 20-30 boxes of whatever I could fit. [turns out the accidentally charged me for shipping from PA to Hawaii. Um… No wonder the shipping was nearly a thousand dollars. Once that was straightened out, I had to go back to the apartment and toss-donate-keep the remaining items.

I miss my Xbox and the games I bought for it. Now? I bought my own, and my own games. It is mine. Not mine with his name on it. I miss my powered wheelchair, my racing chair, my gym gear, and so many personal items left to rot in the janky-trailer storage lot.

A good rule to live by is: “Did I miss it? Did I feel the need to replace it? Is it replicable?” If my answers were, “no, no, yes”, then I would pay little heed to the fact that it was “lost to me”.

If I found an item and said, “wow, I forgot I even had this,” then it is a pretty good indicator that I don’t need it.