Hi Deda, I finally got the Substack app so can easily reply to your writing. Many thanks for all your hard work posting interesting, informative and artfully composed essays. Hope your move goes well and we “townies” can get together sometime.
How very timely. A couple of months ago my husband and I got on the waiting list at Carolina Village, something we should have done MANY years ago. Thanks for sharing this which I will save to my "For further reference" GMail folder!
Thank you, Deda. It's not quite underway and we were told a few months ago when we signed up that we might hear something in two years, BUT, I am downsizing the contents of my home. My children from up north (Philadelphia and Massapequa, NY) will be coming in July and I hope to entice them to return home with some of our stuff.
This column no doubt reverberates for so many of us. We have gone through two major downsizings, once from our large house in Chicago when we moved to Deerlake in Brevard, and from there to our apartment in a retirement community in Columbus, NC. Each time it has been both painful and a tremendous relief. I thank Susan Gabriel, a wonderful writer whom I met in Brevard (she also has a Substack column) for the best piece of advice I have ever received about downsizing: Whenever I am trying to decide about something, if it's not an immediate "HELL YES!"...it's a "No!"
Helen, your combination of the words "painful" and "relief" are a good motivation to keep working at sorting through things to find what matters most. And now I know how to recognize "a NO!" Thank you!
Hi Deda, I finally got the Substack app so can easily reply to your writing. Many thanks for all your hard work posting interesting, informative and artfully composed essays. Hope your move goes well and we “townies” can get together sometime.
How very timely. A couple of months ago my husband and I got on the waiting list at Carolina Village, something we should have done MANY years ago. Thanks for sharing this which I will save to my "For further reference" GMail folder!
Isabel, it must feel good to have your move underway now. Please let us know how it goes! 💌
Thank you, Deda. It's not quite underway and we were told a few months ago when we signed up that we might hear something in two years, BUT, I am downsizing the contents of my home. My children from up north (Philadelphia and Massapequa, NY) will be coming in July and I hope to entice them to return home with some of our stuff.
This column no doubt reverberates for so many of us. We have gone through two major downsizings, once from our large house in Chicago when we moved to Deerlake in Brevard, and from there to our apartment in a retirement community in Columbus, NC. Each time it has been both painful and a tremendous relief. I thank Susan Gabriel, a wonderful writer whom I met in Brevard (she also has a Substack column) for the best piece of advice I have ever received about downsizing: Whenever I am trying to decide about something, if it's not an immediate "HELL YES!"...it's a "No!"
Helen, your combination of the words "painful" and "relief" are a good motivation to keep working at sorting through things to find what matters most. And now I know how to recognize "a NO!" Thank you!
What a thoughtful postcard, Deda....lots to ponder here.
Linda, I think so many of us are pondering this subject, and it feels good to be doing it together! Thank you for your comment.
Good advice. As my neice says and many other adult children say, "Those were your treasures, I don't want them. Genie