"I'm surprised you held onto all these things"

As the new year approaches, I like to take the opportunity to give my home a thorough cleaning. This means both a physical cleaning -- getting the dust from under the bed, the cat hair out of the far reaching corners, tossing old food in the fridge, organizing closets, donating old clothes that I haven't worn -- and spiritual cleanings -- burning sage and the clearing of negative energy. I want to go fresh into the new year and since I have a really keen feeling about 2008, I wanted to doubly make sure I was ready for all the prosperity and bounty I have a sense will be coming my way.

But some things escape my purges. Take, for example, the plates that I still had that my Crazy Ex and I bought at the end of 1998 to start our life together post-college. Well the relationships broke up long before graduation and I ended up with the plates. Until this past Sunday, I still had them and was using them. That's 9 years of use. What the hell was I thinking? That girl was bad news! So why did I keep the plates?

"For someone who's all into energy, I'm surprised you held onto all these things," Ms. K pointed out.

Oh snap! Seriously the thought had never occurred to me until Ms. K pointed it out.

On New Year's Day, slightly drunk from too many margaritas at Enduro, we staggered into my kitchen and began the process of opening all the cabinets. Out came the plates, the martini glasses from another ex-girlfriend, and a whole host of items that I should have long realized had too much psychic baggage. I also added two crystal perfume bottles that the Crazy Ex gave me when we lived in England. Into a cardboard box they went along with the kitchen items and I wrote FREE in black marker on one of the flaps before placing an ad online to get rid of them. When I handed the box off to its new owner yesterday I was glad to see it go.