Are you carrying unnecessary weight in your life box?
Put stuff in. Take stuff out. Just make sure you get the balance right.
At the start of each life, you will be given a box.
This box is empty.
This box is designed to last the entirety of your life, which may be many decades.
(Or not.)
Throughout your life, you will place items inside the box. You will then proceed to walk around with these boxed items. Periodically, you will remove items from the box to make room for other items.
These items are also sometimes called things, or stuff.
The box will remain in a constant state of filling, emptying, and refilling with items, things, and stuff.
This box shall not exceed dimensions that do not fit easily between both hands.
If clarification is needed, both hands will be arranged in the universally recognized carry-a-box configuration. This box is designed to be easily carried in front of your body. The width of this box shall be described as “approximately shoulder width” or “a teensy bit wider than shoulder width.” The height of this box shall not exceed the width of this box and it will be proportionally pleasing to the eye.
The size of this box has been deemed perfect and tickety-boo for managing the vagaries of life.
You will receive one box and one box only.
Repeat: There is only one box.
Space in the box is limited. The box shall not exceed the dimensions as outlined above. No add-ons or annexes or lean-tos are available for the box. There will be no upsell email. You cannot keep everything. Space inside the box is limited!
Put items in. Take items out. Some items will be unwieldy and may teeter precariously at the edge of the box. Visually observe the sexy-Tetris potential of the interior of the box and make adjustments accordingly. If you truly want to carry that teeter-thing around for a while, you will figure out how to make it fit.
Some items of worth that you put inside the box will reveal themselves later as being of no worth. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Do not keep these items. Remove and discard. Make adjustments accordingly.
Memories take up little space and do not require touchstones or mementos to keep them sharp. Some memories benefit from the fuzziness of time and become more deliciously gooey over that time. Remember: Memories are simply the vapor trails of experience—they fit well in voids and air pockets inside the box.
Should the box get too heavy at any point, simply ask a friend to help carry the load until you can get it back to a more manageable weight that is easily carried by two hands. Your two hands, held approximately shoulder-width apart. A true friend will be glad to assist. A false friend may add more items to the box while you are not looking. Do not exceed the carrying capacity of the box.
Take care of the box. The structural integrity of the box must be maintained at all times. This is your only duty upon receiving the box at the start of each life.
Keep the box away from fire—emotional and actual. Fire drama will burn the box and everything in it. Keep a fire blanket at hand. Call it your Box Binky if you must label it. Things that make a good Box Binky include meditation, a long walk, hugging a friend, and getting enough sleep. Yes—a burning box can be extinguished by simply taking a nap.
Exercise caution when placing sharp objects within the box. Be aware that blunt objects can cause just as much damage to the box as sharp objects. Place all objects in the box with precision and care.
Cats may play inside the box. With care.1
You may help to carry other people’s boxes when they ask—it’s the right thing to do—but be careful not to dumpster-dive any of their stuff into the box you have been given. You can share the burden without taking it and making it all yours. If they are removing something from their box, remind yourself that you don’t have to pick up every "FREE COUCH” off a street corner. Just help them carry the box until they can manage it on their own again—that’s all they’re asking.
If you get a hole, tear, or bingle-bangle-whollop in the box, it may be repaired with tape. Tape may take the form of actual tape—Duck2, Gorilla, or some other brand animal—or intangible things that shore up the structure of the box. Like sturdy relationships with good people, listening to symphonies, or wearing a nice jumper that makes you happy. With each piece of tape, the box receives mana, giving it strength and extra integrity.
From time to time, you should close the box. Aim to forget the contents entirely for a spell. Once the box is closed, you may use it to create additional height to retrieve something from a high shelf or to rest a potted plant upon so that it may catch some sunlight from that window. The box is useful support. Close the box. Trust the box. The things you have put inside keep it strong.
Open the box. You may find things inside the box are now imbued with even more meaning. They will surprise and delight. Other things inside the box will reveal themselves to be simply taking up space. Adjust contents accordingly.
You may decorate the box—sure, why not?—but know that in the great grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter what the box looks like. You are not judged by the exterior of the box. You are not judged by the interior either. The box is simply a box and you are the only one who can see it.
With this in mind, remember you cannot see the box that the stranger you just met is carrying either, nor what’s in it. Give people space to carry their boxes. Only when they ask for help will you get a glimpse at that box. Maybe? It’s not always a given.
Watch for cockroaches living in the box. Rats too. Also know that the silverfish of doubt will eat things you hold precious in the box, so be prepared for the visual decay of these things. The nibblings at. The dusting of. Grieve them, but know that they are just things. Material things. Let them go. Take the desiccated thing out of the box and eulogize its passing if you must, but let it go.
You will take things out of the box.
You will put things into the box.
You will do this your whole life.
Do not hold onto things—AKA, keep things in the box—for too long and for the wrong reasons. If the reason is right, let the thing claim its space. If the reason is wrong, jettison that space junk from the universe of the box.
If the box is singing, your box has reached its zen state. Leave it be at this moment. If the song stops, look inside the box. Is something out of balance? Do you need to put something new in there? Meditate on it. Adjust contents accordingly.
At the start of each life, you will be given a box.
At the end of each life, you will return that box.
Who takes the box from you is not important and aligns only with your beliefs.
Your life can last decades. (Or not.)
The size of the box will be relative to the width of your shoulders. Approximately.
At the start of your next life, you will be given a new box. The dimensions of this new box have already been outlined.
But that’s another life. Do not think about a future box. There is only the right here, right now, in-your-arms-in-front-of-you box.
Adjust contents accordingly.
Yours in tiny thought,
Janeen
This week’s amends…
“…write and don’t worry about what the boys will say nor whether it will be a masterpiece nor what. I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”― Ernest Hemingway, from Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 28th May 1934
Source: Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917-1961, edited by Carlos Baker
Via Letters of Note
On Rotation: “Headin’ for the Texas Border” by Flamin’ Groovies
Hiding stuff, taken to extremes.
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Speaking of cats in boxes…. Includes link to a study about why cats like sitting in squares.
This was it. This was the post that got me to subscribe. To download the app. To do the things. I have a box. I've carried it for years, and it's really heavy, beaten and I haven't really looked IN it in years. I've only shared parts of it with people who I thought could actually handle the parts, and even then its been very sparingly. I shared this post with several people I care about and I think so many more people need to see it.
"Memories are simply the vapor trails of experience." I'm putting that in my box.