…and two steps back is the title of one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs. It falls right after “Tunnel of Love” and just in front of “Hard to be a Saint in the City.”   Lately, when listening to this CD while driving to and from work, I’d get stuck on “One Step Up,” and keep hitting replay.

I was struggling with the two steps back. With letting go of all of the beautiful stuff we own. I was having a hard time seeing it as a success, rather than as a failure of some sort…going backwards.
This is America, after all, where we are raised to believe that “he who dies with the most stuff wins!”

We are both grateful that we created and enjoyed all of this stuff, but we’ve realized that it’s a responsibility we don’t want anymore. Houses need constant upkeep, things always break and need repair, things need dusting and polishing. It’s a daily challenge to stave off entropy; the natural decline into disorder. And that’s when you don’t have a storm like the one we had last weekend that took three days to clean-up after.

Maybe success in life comes from realizing, and acting on the fact, that stuff doesn’t set our hearts free.
Maybe that two steps backward that is breaking my heart right now, is actually an “enlightenment” that can continue until I am free at last.

Keepin’ up with the Joneses

Free to enjoy our friends and the experiences we plan to create. Then free to enjoy all of the wonderful memories.

I am a gypsy at heart. As I keep letting go, I hope to get back to that place from which anything is possible, and everything is happening around the next bend.

XO Donna