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Cleaning Out The Closet

Connie Michaelis, Lifestyle Consultant at The Piper Assisted Living and Memory Support

This is the time of year that the summer clothes go away, and the winter clothes come out. I call it the limbo season where you can’t figure out what to wear! It’s cold in the morning and evening and warm in the midday. I suppose if you live in Southern California you don’t have to worry about such things, but personally that seems a little boring to me. Then there is the added challenge of getting rid of the things you’ve not worn for several seasons. The style or size has relegated those items to the has-been area of the closet. I suppose we think that life will change, and we’ll want that ten-year-old suit that’s been out of style for five years! We live in the delusion that the ten pounds will melt away or the styles will return eventually.

The closet metamorphosis is a good analogy for life in general. As humans, we have a tendency to think that things will return to a former state. We might live in the glory of past days and have a secret longing for another time. The older we get, the more that may be the case. The sad mistake is that when you refuse to ‘clean out’ the old stuff, you do not allow for the new. You literally get bogged down in life, clinging to something that is gone. Those that move through the aging process anticipating new things do so more successfully. Not only are those folks the realists, but they are the enthusiasts. Life is always about change and growth, no matter our age. We can make room to shop for new clothes but more importantly we can shop for new experiences all of our lives!