Most valuable and treasured stuff

Moving from the furnished house where you've lived for almost half your life to a boat that's small enough to be easily towed cross-county behind a pickup truck takes some getting used-to.

Like, I'll bet your sidewalk doesn't creak, groan or sway back and forth with the wind. And your living room probably doesn't rock up and down every time a car goes past on the street.

When friends (or acquaintances I've known for years) find out I sold the old hacienda and moved onto a tiny boat the first thing they ask is usually, "Don't you miss your house?"

The answer is easy: No, not even a single time.


Sure, what people usually identity with Home Ownership is comfort and stability; a sense of security, belonging and permanence.

But here at the marina Comfort and Stability depends on the weather, Belonging is measured by the nylon lines holding Calypso secured in her slip, and Permanence largely depends on how much fuel's in the tanks.

I've said it here before but it's worth saying again: There's nothing like a house fire to prove that freedom doesn't depend on how much you've got ... Freedom depends on how much you're willing to lose.

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I don't miss having Stuff because Stuff breaks, Stuff has to be onerously insured (because Stuff gets lost or stolen) and eventually Stuff has a tendency to become not just a financial or physical, but also a spiritual, burden.

Stuff doesn't come with only a Price stuck on its label: Stuff arrives delivered to our door with an on-going and overlooked Cost as well . .. and Stuff hardly ever has the exaggerated, inflated Importance and Value we enjoy attaching to it.

In focusing on accumulating, protecting, and maintaining material possessions we attach a false sense of importance to our Stuff. As if we feel defined and measured by our Stuff, no matter whether our Stuff is comprised of cars, boats, jewelry, a vacation house, coin collection, our clothes and shoes ... or photo albums, keepsakes and family heirlooms.

Even if our collection of Stuff included The Hope Diamond , none of our Stuff has any intrinsic value beyond what's assigned to it: Stuff is temporary because Stuff cannot last, endure or become permanent.

It's all only Stuff after all.

In attaching emotional weight and Importance to Stuff we miss seeing that what we've actually anchored to our Stuff isn't Value or Importance at all, but instead the only irreplaceable thing we've got: our souls.