Closing The Door

Last Wednesday, we closed the door on a chapter in our lives.  We moved.  We've always maintained that moving is for the better, for an improved quality of life, and exciting.  We don't feel stressed about packing things up - it's a new beginning.  The stress is the realisation of one's excesses - the collections, the curios and the colossal piles of junk.  It's a shock to count the number of sets of pyjamas one has - how many pairs of shoes - how many cake pans - how many kitchen gadgets - how many cords one keeps to equipment that was obsolete 20 years ago.
There were three piles made upon unpacking - keep, cottage and goodwill.  Which one do you think won?  Imagine paying all that money to have things moved only to put it in the trunk of the car and give it away!  It's a relief though, clutter is chaotic, minimising is freedom.
Just a few weeks earlier, my brother-in-law had the same but opposite problem.  He closed the door on a 24 year old business location which was jammed to the rafters, only to re-open in a much bigger, nicer and more  convenient building. Hooray!  In his case, expansion was the order of the day - relief from a dysfunctional setup.
Ultimately, we both ended up in the same position though, someone had to put the key in the door for the final time.  It was my sister who ended up locking the door of her husband's building.  In my case, I was the last one there and had quite a lump in my throat.  We had moved to that location because of my illness, lost two of our beloved dogs there and savoured every panoramic sunrise and sunset. 
We're now on terra firma complete with a back yard for our puppy to enjoy and for me to launch an earth garden as opposed to the garden-in-the-sky that I had previously constructed. 
It makes you really think...closing the door and coming back down to earth...two truly profound and fitting metaphors.