I spent a few hours today going through my office and organizing everything in it. I still have more to do, but it was a start. And for that, I feel somewhat accomplished.

I saw images from the California fire today. It made me once again think about my worldly possessions. I thought about what if a fire was sweeping towards us quickly and I had to grab only a suitcase worth of things. What would I bring?

Beyond making sure my children were safe, I thought of only my camera gear, my laptop, a box of my old journals from high school, and the loose photos I have stored in a drawer in my office.

But even today as I spent a long time going through all the stuff in my office, I was reminded by how much stuff I actually own. All together it feels like a weight dragging me down. And right now, my desire is to get rid of as much of it as I can.

I sold nearly all my old photography gear the other day to a local camera shop. It was hard purely due to sentimental value. I sold my old Pentax cameras from which I learned how to shoot photography, as well as my grandfather’s old cameras, which looked nice, but would never ever be used and instead just stored in boxes in my closet. Which, seemed quite silly. I highly doubt it’s what he’d want, anyway.

So I sold it all. And it was a good amount of stuff. Most of it was in decent condition. I sold it to get a camera that I would actually use instead. And that helps me look toward to future with much more joy than having a bunch of old cameras in boxes in my closet.

They didn’t have the camera in the store, so I had to have them order it for me. It might be a couple weeks before it comes in, but I’m very excited for it to get here. As I pare down my worldly possessions, I’m trying to get down to the essentials of what brings me joy, which is mostly photography related, as well as my kitchen gadgets to help me make good coffee as well as bake.

As I assess the things in my life, I’m also trying to assess how I use my time. I think I’ve spent too much time the last couple months watching television shows. I’ve watched a lot of them, and I know I can be spending my time doing more productive things. Even though I love good stories, I feel like constantly being a producer of content rather than a creator drains the life out of me over time. And I’ve been consuming way more than I’ve been producing recently. And I want to flip that around.

Even though it’s getting much colder recently, I have felt inspired to be getting out more to take photos when I go out places. Or even to intentionally get outside to take photos. And that is exciting to me.

I did recently do a family photo shoot, and that was fun for me. It’s been a long, long time  since I last did a family shoot. Doing that shoot makes me want to get out there and do more.

But guess what, all this purging has kept my mind going, and it has helped me come to my computer and just sit down and type. And I’m thankful for that.