My childhood is currently in boxes in my livingroom. We’ve finally cleared out most of our things from Papa’s house, and each child has a trunk full of saved scraps and mementos of our early years. Being the oldest, with over two decades of existence under my belt, I have a much bigger pile of things to sort through. My baby blanket and hospital cap. School progress reports. Yearbooks. An old business card collection. Cards from every birthday, Christmas, and Hallmark holiday. Letters I wrote to my parents. Even the notes I took during my dad’s sermons are in there.

My task this afternoon will be to decide what I want to keep, and discard the things that no longer hold any personal meaning. Memory lane, here I come…