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Dear Reader
Guest author, Tara Lynn Masih, offers you a unique challenge at the end of her guest column today. So let's get right to it.
Please welcome author Tara Lynn Masih...
Recently my husband and I decided to downsize from a 100-year-old New England house to a condominium. Our cape-style home isn't large (3 small bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths), so you'd think this wouldn't be difficult. In fact, we began getting rid of "stuff" three years ago...and we're still getting rid of stuff three years later. In addition to the many smalls that accumulate over time, because I'm a writer, paper and files are stored everywhere. And, of course, there are hundreds of books. How do you part with books when many of them are your own?
But one thing we've discovered during this process, and during the process of clearing out parents' homes--stuff weighs you down. Not the art your loved ones create, but the clothes, shoes, kitchenware, photos (OMG, the boxes of loose photos!), tools, dishware, furniture, bedding, towels, bikes, outdoor equipment, CDs, electronic devices... It goes on and on, and not till you have to get rid of most of it do you realize how much we Americans consume. We no longer hunt and gather food, we gather stuff.
In our new condo, we have a chance to start over. We feel the extra space in each room. The few items on walls or shelves stand out. So we appreciate them more. There's less to clean, less to dust (which is good for allergies). There's a general sense of lightness that surrounds us.
We'll carefully pick through our stuff in the cape home, make sure heirlooms are saved or go to other family members, make sure only the books by my friends and ones I want to read again are retained, and make sure the best photos are culled and put in albums. Through this process, we're learning how little we need. How stuff stresses us out. How there are other ways to get excited about life than to get a quick high off a shopping spree. Material gifts this late in life for birthdays and holidays are now, for us, unnecessary; it's better to share an experience or a delicious meal.
Work back toward a home where its contents are just what you need and want, nothing more. As writer Magdelena Vandenberg says, "Clear clutter--make space for you." Don't wait for the kids to leave the house. Do it while you're young and have time to enjoy the space for you. See if the extra room around you allows you to expand internally and enjoy life more.
It's working for us!
I'm giving away one beautiful signed first edition copy of My Real Name Is Hanna. Please email me with your name and address and one item you promise to discard or donate! Best item wins. Deadline Sept. 30, 2018.
Email: TaraLMasih@aol.com
-- Tara Lynn Masih
Email: TaraLMasih@aol.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tara Lynn Masih is an award-winning author and editor of two best-selling anthologies and a short story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows. Her debut novel for young readers and adults, My Real Name Is Hanna, was inspired by a real family who sought refuge in the underground caves in Ukraine during World War II. It comes "highly recommended" by the Jewish Book Council and received a 2018 Skipping Stones Honor Award and has just been named by Goodreads to their Ultimate Fall Reading List for YA Book Fans.
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Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
** AUTHORBUZZ **
SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP: How Discipline Can Set Students Free (Nonfiction) by Cinque Henderson
For one year I worked as a substitute teacher, poorly paid, rarely thanked, in some of the toughest, most chaotic schools in Los Angeles. It was a doozy! But it was also powerful, important and transformative. Out of that job comes this new book. It is a heartfelt and original look at the most vexing issues of our time--race, class, the promise of meritocracy, the failures of politics--seen through the eyes of an unlikely source.
Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP to read more and to email author Cinque Henderson, you'll get a reply.
This month's Penguin Classics book is THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JOAQUIN MURIETA, by John Rollin Ridge. I have a Penguin totebag to share with a lucky reader. Read this month's Penguin Classics book and enter-to-win for your chance to win the adorable totebag.
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