A Good Day of Giving

Another moon cycle starts, another Dark Moon, and for this one I decided to start by shedding things and doing something good in the process. So I decided to grab a whole bunch of mangas I had that I didn't read for a long, long time, and also some old books, and give them new life by donating them to our local Library. The thought would have never really occured to me until my friend Dragonfly told me that's what she does with her books when she needs to clear up some space for new ones.

I know, the thought of giving books away sounds down right heretic or immoral for some, but trust me, it comes a time when your library has books you no longer read nor think you'll ever read again. In my case, I had accumulated over three large bags full of mangas I simply wasn't interested in reading anymore (though keep a serious amount I read and re-read regularly), along with all of my Harry Potter books. These books had been stashed away in the depths of an old closet we use only for storage purposes, when it could actually be used for something a little bit more productive.

Well, the other day I was thinking about the highly unlikely chance that we would have a guest who could use that room, say my older nephew decided to spend a longer period here during school break, or a friend came from abroad and we would have them at our place... you name it. Or something as simple as my Mom outgrowing her closet (already happened), so she would move to a bigger one - namely my old closet, which happens to be the biggest closet of the whole house. (My boyfriend totally loves it, which is why we have a similar one at our flat in Budapest.)

The closet is filled with a lot of things - and I do mean a lot! - so the other day I took a look at it to asses how many things and what kind of things are there that would need a new home or even a trip to the wastebin. Well, there they were, three large Benetton paper bags filled to the brim with mangas. Easily over 100 of them. Shortly after that I received an invite to a Book Fair where people can trade books or even donate them. My first thought was to go over there and donate the books, so I prepared them so I would go today. However, after running some errands at the City Center, I started thinking if I should drive all the way to the Capital City, struggle with the traffic there, with the parking, and then all by my own pull three bags of books looking for where can I dump them for donations. That's when Dragonfly came to my mind, and so I thought about asking our local Library if they take donations. And they do! They were closed, but they happily took my mangas. The man there said there were many kids who came looking for things to read in English, and mangas were fabulous to lure the younger generation into the Old House of Books.

I asked my Dad to help me and we took the mangas over there. I felt so happy thinking that I was putting all those mangas close to people who probably didn't know about them or maybe couldn't afford them. Maybe wouldn't even be able to get them, since some of them are old or an older edition (like my Paradise Kiss).

After that I've got home and decided to take some of my parfumes - those I no longer feel comfortable using, like a J'Adore I had already for several years - and give them away. I entrusted a lady who comes over to clean to give them away or keep them, as she saw fit. She was happy because she mentioned that her parfumes are already running low, and I was happy to have space and know that those parfumes would be used instead of collecting dust on my dresser. 

A while ago I used to have a lot of parfumes, I tried our and experimented a lot and went through phases. The Chanel No.5 phase, the Very Irresistible phase, the Flower (by Kenzo) phase, the Halloween phase (I'm reliving that currently), and then a series of artisanal scents called Vienna, Vesta and Hera. From a parfume to another, small snipets were left over and now I decided to give them away, along with those that once apealed to me but now I find either too strong, or their scent no longer seems to be part of my world.

Currently my scent world revolves around Halloween, Peony by L'Occitane, Vervaine also by L'Occitane and a small jasmine escence vial I've got for a couple of dimes at a Hindu store, so really, why to keep everything else? Specially when I believe I'm the only woman in this country who can make a 50 ml bottle of parfume last for three years while using it every day?

I put my cleaning purpose on my List of 13, my 13th list, actually ^_^ and decided to take it to anything and everything around me. My closet, my drawers, my shoes, my files... There's people out there who could give new life to the things that have been dormant around me, cluttering around, dying slowly while taking live space and killing it with it.

My life is going through some changes, and some things are a bit threatening, hanging by a thread, but this exercise reminds me of a process I already started: "stop holding to the old, the things that don't work for me anymore. Let go of the excess, come clean and honest". You can always learn something deeply philosophical and life changing from the most simplest things of the world. There must be a Natural, nearly Fibonacci thing about it, wouldn't you say?