leave the past in the past

This morning I went through clothes and chose a whole white kitchen grocery bag stuffed to get rid of.  It was hard.  I was holding onto this sweater from grad school, for example, for years and years.  But I'm finally setting it free.

And I went through a box of papers from high school.  Yes, I still have papers from high school: band pictures, graduation cards, bassoon music, tons of old letters, the newspaper articles I wrote.  I threw away a lot, which is sad.

But it's over.  The throwing it away is over, and the past is over.  Ming is thinking about going to his 30 year high school reunion.  It will be a BBQ and cost $25.  At a park.  It's something social he can do.  I would never go to a high school reunion.  I've never been to one.

"Leave the past in the past" is a fortune cookie fortune my therapist told me last time I saw her.

But I have this rose quartz that matches the one I lost 18 years ago, and it's like the past came back.  How confusing.