Sally's Room

In the book, Sally's Room, by Mary K. Brown, Sally discovers that when her room in empty, she can “dance in here.” That’s how I felt after R. and I removed everything but the furniture from my very cramped study. After the skies dumped 16+ inches of rain on us in 6 weeks (April-May), I found mold growing in the southwest corner and knew we had to get my books and files out of there quickly. It took an entire weekend of backbreaking work to do this, but now I can sleep at night, assured that I will not wake up to find fuzz growing on Mary Oliver’s poetry or my genealogy records. Or my CDs, art supplies, etc. (Although I doubt that Mary Oliver would be offended. She’d probably write a poem about the fungi reclaiming her words.) We’re still waiting for the repairs to begin on our chimney and roof before the contractor can even think about making the room livable again. In the meantime, I’m looking at the almost empty room and wondering if I can bear to pitch about half of my stuff so I can actually have some floor space. Maybe to dance in. Or maybe even room to sew or make art. Maybe I’ll redo the closets so I can move the filing cabinets inside. Maybe I’ll move the bookshelves. I’ve already taken four or five bags of clothing to Goodwill, but, alas, only one box of books. Everything else is stuffed into one end of the living room. I plan to be very selective when I put things back, but will I have the courage to cull enough stuff so that I can make art? Dance?