Yay! the original owner of the dirty, old stuffed animals I restored said she has been missing them, and since I suggested it, she will change her mind and take one of them back.
She denigrated the grief she felt at their loss – – "I am just anthropomorphizing fabric".
That is not how I see it at all.
Our things may carry some of our heart and our history, and they are worthy of being honored, as are our tender feelings for them.
Which one will go back? (Their owner lives in another state.)
I sent this photo: "Choose one, two, three, or all four!"
Our materialistic culture can confuse us...
We're enticed to spend a lot of money on things and yet are supposed to consider them entirely disposable. Feelings for them may be denied or mocked.
This isn't good for us--or for the things--especially if they are intimate possessions, like toys often are.
(I wonder how hoarding ties in with our disordered relationship to things...)
Respecting things doesn't mean we have to keep everything.
Of course not!
In Japan, for instance, temples hold an annual Doll Burial ceremony-- ningyo kuyo. The spirit of the doll is thanked and released so that the physical object can be let go. Traditionally, the temples burn them.
We could adopt such an attitude to the things we care for.
