Well, it's a new year. And as I was cleaning through some of Claire and my trip paraphernalia searching for lost items, I came across the souvenirs I kept from some of the books I've given up from my exes. I'm glad to know that my cleansing efforts are educating the world. Good books too: The Secret History, Donna Tartt; Mountains Beyond Mountains, Paul Farmer; Hopscotch, Cortazar etc etc.

However, despite all Claire and my best efforts, and all the moving that has been happening lately, traces are everywhere. A stray conversation at New Year's, a pair of warm-up pants in the back of my closet, an email search gone awry. For someone who hasn’t dated many people, they all seemed to be popping up.

So, I have realized this New Year's that among the various other resolutions I have made is to simplify simplify simplify. This applies to my lifestyle, my email inbox...everything. Most of my ex paraphernalia is in storage, but for some reason a collection of ex-boyfriends clothing showed up in my armoire. I felt the message was clear.

Season of giving. I packed up three T-shirts, and a pair of warm-up pants and took them to the Goodwill truck. I prefer the one-on-one method of giving Clara and I usually do, but felt that urgency was more the issue. It was an impulse and the thought of going to find actual people to give it to seemed extensive.

So there. New Year, newly cleansed armoire.

Labels: cleansing, ex-boyfriend, new year's