In a few weeks I will no longer have a child less than 5 years of age. That means I no longer have to keep track of the polio drives here in India. Children over 5 are not required to take the vaccine. There is also a child who has lost two of his baby teeth, quite the milestone this week.

For a person who used to live out of suitcases with not much in terms of permanence for almost 3 decades of my life, the idea of making a home and raising children was fascinating. I simply couldn’t let any item go. What if we needed it later? What if I give it away and the kids ask for it. When you have children there is also the sentimental angle, the book that helped you wean your child, the very first clothes your husband picked for the baby. The books your children always read together because it was too hilarious to read alone.

Then again growing children have growing needs, growing needs mean more space which in a city like Mumbai is very hard to come by. So this week has been about deciding which things to keep and which ones to let go. The community we live in had organized a donation drive and we gave away clothes, books, and other baby things we had cherished and loved.

I think it was hardest on me, I cried a little but then there’s joy in knowing its going to children who will also love and cherish them. Then again, I found someone who could fix my watch, one I had lying around for years just because the battery had run out (talk about procrastination). Fall is finally making its presence felt around here, the Indian Almond trees are the first ones to turn red and shed the leaves, now if that isn’t a sign to let go to make way for the new, I don’t know what is.

Anyway that’s working now and a chess board I have been lugging around has been adopted for post dinner chess games. Things in our lives have a way of making themselves useful – for us or for others.

Things to let go –

Things to keep –

Have a good week!