bundles of memories...

Being both an organizational and sentimental freak, I decided to tackle the project of organizing cards and correspondence we've received over the years. Yesterday I pulled out the boxes of memories and set to work separating and organizing by intended recipient(s) - stuff sent/given to Jerry, stuff sent/given to me, stuff sent/given to us as a couple and stuff exchanged between Jerry and me. The process was very revealing. Here's what I learned:

My husband, though sweet, doesn't have the keenest sense of memory or attention to detail.

When he gave me this penguin card for our anniversary, I thought it looked familiar and was pretty certain that he had given me this card before. Yesterday's project confirmed that he had indeed given this card to me before. This was also my birthday card this year. It should be noted that the card is neither a birthday card nor an anniversary card. Both cards were filled with very nice words from my husband, so I'm not complaining...I'm just amused :-)

There are lots of people that love or like me! I mean, I knew this already. But it's nice to see the evidence! The stuff given/sent to Hev required two boxes!! How lucky am I to have so many nice people in my life that send me letters and cards? The answer is: very very lucky! It's especially nice to see that, even in our technologically advanced age, there are still people sending things through the mail. As much as I love e-mail, you can't bundle e-mail messages up in pretty ribbons with the same effect!

My parents are the best!! Yes, this is another thing I already knew, but it's nice to be reminded of it and even nicer to let them (and all of you) know it too! The evidence of this begins with this card:

My dad made this card for me when I was just a baby/toddler. I don't even remember him giving it to me, but love that I still have it! There were numerous cards from my parents and there seemed to be a theme to them: no matter what choices I made or how different my path seemed, they always were proud and always respected the individual that is me! As I get older, I become more convinced that having such supportive parents is really the exception, not the norm. I am so thankful for that constant love and support that I receive from them!

Being both a sentimental freak and organizational freak sometimes puts me at odds with myself. The sentimental part of me wants to hold onto everything I've ever received from the people that are important to me. The organizational freak occasionally wants to purge the excess clutter from my life. The organizational freak watches shows like Clean Sweep (so good!) and has learned that things are not often important. Rather it's the memories that you associate with the things that are important. Well, organizational Heather has dominated in the past and the result is that many things have been recycled. And while I do still have the memories, I'm a little disappointed that there are some things that I don't have. Over the years, my Grandma Helen must've sent dozens of cards. When I did the last big purge, it didn't seem that important to save them all. But since then, my grandmother's passed on and I find it a little sad that I only have two cards from her saved. I have the last Christmas card and the last birthday card that she sent. Here's the birthday card:

I don't know if you can really see it, but the Dear Heather is in quotes. It's something funny that she always did. And she always signed with X's. I'm sad that I don't have even one of her Easter or Thanksgiving cards. She would often send me money on those holidays, "to buy a ham (or turkey) sandwich." I don't know how much she thought a sandwich costs, but she always sent me way more than that!

So, my big lesson is that I need to let sentimental Heather get her way. Which isn't all bad for orgnizational Heather. Saving lots of stuff means keeping it all organized. Because that's another lesson from Clean Sweep: if you are going to keep things to help preserve memories, honor the things and the memories by taking good care of them.