Reflections of a Pack Rat

Plus upcoming events and new prompt.

This horrifies me.

I’m thinking about stuff. How to get rid of it, how to resist gathering more of it. Two great Substack writers inspired me recently: Sue Mell (So Much Stuff) and Sarah Webb (“Lessons from Perfection”). Sarah writes about minimalism and I feel like I’m from another planet. I’m a maximalist—or, a pack rat.

I wrote about my attachment to stuff for Kripalu Center 10 years ago. I was just about to move in with my (now) husband. As we prepare to move again (just down the road), I’m looking around at shelves and cubbies crammed with treasures and wondering how to let it all go.

Here’s the edited article from 2014:

The root of suffering is attachment.
—The Buddha (and many gardeners I know)

I’ve moved 10 times in the past 14 years, from various hotels in Asia (see A Thousand and One Nights, my autobiographical novel about lou…