{"id":20262,"date":"2019-08-27T13:09:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T20:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=20262"},"modified":"2019-08-27T13:09:13","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T20:09:13","slug":"downsizing-goes-against-my-grain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/downsizing-goes-against-my-grain\/","title":{"rendered":"Downsizing goes against my grain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Rev. Paul Graves<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Since mid-May, the Graves\u2019 family has been mentally and tangibly downsizing our \u201cstuff\u201d to move into a smaller, and one-level, house at the end of August. I can say with experiential authority that downsizing really goes against my grain!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a serious klutz when it comes to working with wood; but I know wood well enough to realize wood rebels when I try to cut, plane, or sand against or across the grain. The grain clich\u00e9 also comes alive when we bump up against significant changes in our routines and\/or expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like preparing to move to a new house. Many people go through this ritual every year. Now in a few weeks, it\u2019s our turn. Choosing which furniture to sell, which personal items to discard, what to take with us \u2014 downsizing can suck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some moments, downsizing is an intense exercise in grief. Allow me to illustrate. I\u2019ve reluctantly spent time in my home office saying goodbye to boxes of files that contain important sermonic memories. (Many sermons are still on my computer, though!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first preached a sermon when I was 15.\u00a0So for 62 years (and counting), I\u2019ve accumulated manuscripts or sermon notes.\u00a0I made a conscious decision that these papers will not come with me to our new home.\u00a0A rational decision, yes.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0
But I\u2019ve emotionally fought my reason all the way.\u00a0My memories from preaching will stay with me.\u00a0But still, I grieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, I decided to let go of another collection of old sermons. They belonged to my grandfather. He began preaching in 1910, and the last sermon I found in his sermon box was from 1971. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved him deeply as my grandpa. I\u2019ve gleaned wisdom and insight from reading some of his proclamations. I said goodbye to his paperwork, but I keep him in my heart. How could I discard 123 years of paper sermons between Grandpa and me? It wasn\u2019t easy! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practically, there are many reasons why the paper isn\u2019t needed anymore. Emotionally, the reasons are murkier to explain. Maybe they don\u2019t need to be explained to anyone else, not even to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grief simply needs to be experienced. Because, you see, any grief I experience in this downsizing of our collective sermons is borne out of a deeper gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a deep sense of gratitude, no one would ever feel grief! The clich\u00e9 that comes to me is something like \u201cSuffering is the price of love.\u201d Downsizing wouldn\u2019t be such an emotional challenge if it wasn\u2019t immersed in the gratitude and love that helps create a life worth living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After living nearly 23 in the same house, Sue and I are relocating our home to a new house. The process has been both exciting and overwhelming for us both. Our summer has been a mix of feelings and a flurry of preparations that mess with our minds every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We grieve, we laugh, we throw up our hands in panic, we pack boxes and we discard unneeded \u201cstuff.\u201d Recently, we refreshed our memories about the late comedian George Carlin\u2019s classic take on \u201cstuff.\u201d (See it on YouTube if you dare!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a great reminder that \u201cstuff\u201d may not be as important as we think. So, how do you deal with your \u201cstuff\u201d \u2014 whether you are downsizing prior to a move, or simply choosing to discard what you may still want, but no longer need?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Rev. Paul Graves<\/strong> serves as the chair for the Council on Older Adult Ministries for the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The process of downsizing has not been easy one for the Rev. Paul Graves as his family moves to a new, smaller home. In his post, Graves considers the value of accumulated “stuff” and the relationship between grief and gratitude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":20263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[502,142],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nurturing-elders","8":"category-older-adult-ministries"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Downsizing.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-5gO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20266,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20262\/revisions\/20266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}