Wrangler Dani

I keep everything. Well, not everything. But cards, notes, movie stubs and scraps of paper with doodles or notes from friends – those are IMPOSSIBLE for me to throw away.

Case in point – today I was going through my receipts and etc. for taxes FIRE BREATHING MONSTER OF DEATH and found a puffy envelope from 2006 with Julie‘s handwriting on it that said “To Dani California”. That was enough to make it worth stuffing away and cherishing forever, along with a place-card from the first wedding Adam and I went to together, an “it’s OK you’re jobless, I still love you!” note from Valerie, the last roll of film I developed in college, and sundry other goodies from the last few years.

It makes me feel a tiny bit melancholy, (probably just because I am a hanger-onner… yes, that’s my official title). It makes me miss my friends who are far away, makes me grateful for all the times they held me up with their love, helps me remember the crazy journey that’s brought me here.  I have to remind myself that it’s OK to throw things away and it’s also OK to reminisce – but more than anything, it’s good to be grateful, to live in the moment, to cherish the past, and to move on wiser, humbler, kinder because of it.