Last week I experienced the feeling of loss. I got a phone call from one of my roommates while I was at work. She told me that a lot of things were missing and that probably someone broke into the apartment. I was shocked and felt confused about what was I supposed to do, but most importantly about what I was supposed to feel. A lot of things were stolen from us. Our laptops, hard drives, perfumes, jewelry among other things.
Someone broke into our apartment and took our things. As scary and overwhelming as it was for all of us in the apartment, I decided to let it go. Forget about my things and not even think about it. To be honest, it wasn´t that hard, but I felt the need to dedicate some time to think about it after a few days.
Some of my things were taken from me. It was not my fault, I didn´t lose them, it wasn't because I was careless or because I was ready to let them go. Some of my things were taken away and it was not my decision, nor was a situation that I could control. I felt frustration and some confusion, because I could not avoid thinking that by feeling sadness and frustration I wasn't being my thoughts and ideals. All of the things that were taken away from me were material, things that I consider vain. Things that are on the bottom of the things that are important and relevant to me, therefore things that I shouldn´t be feeling concerned about losing. I stopped and took some time on this thought. Why are things important to me? What gives them value?
Things are important to us not because of what they are, but because of what they represent to us. The value we give to them is created by the combination of our experience and memories linked to a thing. That is how an inanimate object, which is so vain, can become of such value to the point in which we will cry its lost. So it is okey to hold on to stuff, to care for things, to love them because they represent a memory, a feeling a circumstance. Things will never be as relevant as a person, as our feelings or our experience, but they serve as reminders of all of those things and therefore being devoted to them should not be a reason for judgment. Hold on to things as you will to the person represented through it, learn from things as you will from the memory they´re linked to. Protect your things if they are valuable to you, because if they are it means you own them for a reason. Respect that reason and allow things to have their own natural value.
