Sentimental Possession

I may be crazy. I may be irrational.  It may be an easy explanation if you know my background. But I attach emotion to key objects and no matter how much it "makes sense" to part with them... I just... can't.

When I was 14, for less than $90, all the important possessions of my life were sold in an auction at a storage unit facility. It included all the pictures of my childhood except for one collage frame. It included every thing that was left to me from my grandparents- including the manuscript of a book about my great uncle Allen Sollie and by extension our family. It included all the black and white photos, every momento from my grandparents' lives, every thing that might still have carried their smells.... my grandparents were the most important people in my young life.

So there's the psych 101 explanation.

Now to be fair- I am not a hoarder. (Thank goodness)
But I have stuffed animals that I haven't been able to part with. I can justify this by having room in my house for them and selling them wouldn't exactly help pay off any bills other than a lunch trip to Five Guys.
But I have jewelry- nice jewelry.... jewelry that every day grows in value. And selling it could pay the bills.... but I would miss it terribly.
That is my reality.
Sentimental reality- maybe that's where the word "sentimentality" comes from.

I just got back from an amazing trip to Anguilla. While their we dined at Blanchards- Mel and Bob Blanchard are amazing people. They live a passionate live- they take risks, they follow their dreams.... they wrote a book on how others can too... I read the book end to end on the plane and while inspriring- I just think their reality is a once in a million reality. I think it's easier to live a life you love if you are artistic and have talent that you can use to drive your life. And the Blanchard's have more talent in their little pinkies than I have in the sum total of my days.
It's nice to be able to say that money is one of the four key things that you need to consider to balance your life. The reality for most is that it is the number one of those four factors (or 10 or whatever) and yet.... I can't sell my jewelry.
I may be a sentimental woman but my memories- and the tokens I have as reminders when my mind will begin to go (as all of ours will) are what I have.  I would not give them up willingly. Telling the story behind the memory of the token (stuffed animal, jewelry, whatever) to someone who loves you helps keep the memory alive. Long after we are all gone.