I was sitting around with some ladies after the Salon on Sunday in Cincinnati. We were chatting about my downsizing adventure and one asked if there was anything I got rid of that I later regretted. I had to really think about it and she surmised if it took me that long to think of something, the answer was probably “No”. I’ve had a couple of days to think about it though and here’s what I’ve come up with.

I don’t miss the house I sold. It was beginning to need a good amount of work and I just didn’t love it enough to invest the time or the money into it.
I do miss the home I created there with my younger daughter and then the addition of Mr. Virgo. There were some beautiful memories we made in that place. Those times I miss but they were gone once they passed from real-time. Now they are memories.

I don’t miss the yard work, the snow shoveling, and the everyday maintenance of such a big house. When you are the chief cook and bottle washer, the light can kind of dim pretty quickly on a house that size.
I do miss the trees and flowers I so carefully planted when I built that house. And I miss the covered front porch that I rocked on every chance I got. I miss sitting out there with Mr. Virgo, coffee mugs in hand, laughing and planning our long life together. Oh yes…I miss that terribly.

I don’t miss the mortgage hanging over my head till I’m 90.

I do miss the fact that the mortgage was lower than what most rents are now, but that’s why I have a paid-for tiny home on wheels now.

I miss my bed that I shared with Mr. Virgo. It was magnificent. It was a bed befitting of royalty and since he was my Prince…and I his Princess…it suited us. But it was huge. HUGE! And heavy. Very, very heavy. I couldn’t have remodeled my little tiny home to fit it.

But, really…is it the bed I miss? Or is it the “two spoons in a drawer” snuggle we did every night? Is it the arm under my head, me grasping his left thumb and holding on for dear life till he fell asleep and turned over? Only then would I allow myself to relax into sleep because I had prayed every night of my life for that. I wasn’t going to miss one second of it by falling asleep before he turned over.

As I pondered these things, the new owners posted the picture of the snowy sidewalk out front and I suddenly had my answer. No. No, other than my beautiful neighbor’s, and that great front porch with the trees and flowers….no. I have no regrets. I have great memories and those cost me nothing and no one can take them away.

❤️

“I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”

2 Peter 1:13-15 NIV