Do you have any collections?
The question stunned me for hours, which wasn’t hard considering I was not feeling well.
Stunned because, where do I begin? My collection are so much that I feel overwhelmed most times.
My collections are in categories. I will try to address as many as possible.
Emotional Collections: I have felt a variety of things over the years — positives, negatives, good, bad and a combination of most. Now I may not feel many of such at the moment, but I remember them especially when my memories are triggered. Which leads to the next collection.
Collection of Experiences: Both personal and that of others, though I treasure that of others more. Because I could only have a secondary feeling of the experience, and that is only because I empathize with people a lot. I’m one of those into my feelings person. Because of this, I’m into the feelings of others as well. My experiences are sometimes either too personal or something. On second thought, maybe I value my experiences differently. Or I am too busy experiencing them as independent entities that have a life and will of their own. It is sort of hard to collect experiences trying to collect you, no? The struggle/choice is between not losing myself to experiences and trying to gather those experiences. Collecting and keeping myself is my primary goal. Personal Experiences are often like unwanted guests or August visitors. We often cannot control how short or how long they stay. The issue here is, I don’t want to get collected by my experiences. The struggle with experiences has shown me a lot about myself though.
Collections of “Stuff” : I am a hoarder. So naturally I hardly throw away things, because I find it wasteful to throw away things before they have maximised their potential. From plastic bottles, to grocery bags and the likes. I will need those things later. Later sometimes means years down the line, while occupying space, gathering dust, making cleaning more challenging than it ought to. But when it does come handy — mostly for others who have been helpful to my family — then the challenges of hoarding are worth it. In my defence, I don’t like to just “use and dump”.
Collections of Wisdom and Knowledge: These are favourites and they range from spiritual, relational, emotional and psychological. I gather these from reading, fiction mostly and watching movies. There isn’t any movie I have watched or novel I have read I didn’t try to juice lessons or wisdom from. My mother taught me, to not just be entertained but to make sure I am schooled as well. Also I collect wisdom from people’s shared life stories and experiences — better to learn from others than to learn from yourself. My mother taught me that too. And I am grateful she did and I listened. Listening to wise and knowledgeable people is also another way I collect wisdom.
Well, that will be that on collections. It few odd times during daylight hours and night time to think and write this. See you next post or the comment section. Shalom😇
Musings of a Sanguine Christian Woman 