Simplifying & Letting Go

The last few days I've been on a quest to simplify my life by letting go of some of my things. Yesterday I got rid of about 30 books that were taking up space in the basement. Today I sold 33 CDs from my collection to Half-Price Books.

While I was going through the CDs, I realized that part of the reason I was keeping them was as a reminder of the past, and in particular a reminder of past hurts. I remember, for example, the CDs I was listening to when G. betrayed my trust. I remember CDs that I used to listen to when I was part of a conservative group pretending to be like them. Some of them are Christian CDs that reflect a theology I no longer believe in. I never listen to these CDs any more, and I realized that part of the reason was because I didn't want to be reminded of the events and feelings I had attached to them. But neither was I willing to let them go, and I detected a kind of resentment at the idea of letting them go. But today I did, and it was good.