私たち夫婦は明日、引越しの日を迎える。
今度住む息子の家は広くないので、物はできるだけ減らすっもりで片付け始めたが、これが意外に①難しかった。自分たちの着なくなった服や古い靴などはすぐに捨てられるのだが、押し入れの奥の段ボール箱から次々に出てくる物はそうではない。「これは何だろう。」「それはあの時の。」などと思い出を語っているうちに、時間がたってしまう。そして、捨てられなくなる。
例えば、小さな黄色い靴。これは息子が初めて履いた靴だ。息子の小さかったころを思い出して本当に懐かしくなる。っいこの間まで子供だった息子が新しい家を建てて、一緒に住もうと言ってくれた。優しい子に育ってくれたとうれしくなったり、時間が過ぎるのがあまりに早くて少し悲しくなったり…。
家族のアルバムや古い手紙などが出てきても、②同じことになる。片付けは引っ越しの一週間前になっても終わらず、物もほとんど減らせなかった。
でも、これではだめだということになり、私たちは③考えをまったく変えることにした。今度の家は広くないし、私たちにとっては大事な物でも息子たちにとってはそうではないだろう。それで、思い出の物は、アルバム以外は全部捨てることにした。私たちの思い出は段ボール箱ではなく、心の中にしまっておけばいいのだ。
しかし、この三週間はとても楽しかった。歩いてきた人生をもう一度思い出すことができたからである。そして、持ち物の整理もすることができた。頼んでおいた引っ越しのトラックは、少し大きすぎたかもしれないが、それはそれでいい。
AI translation, cross-checked between two models.
Tomorrow is moving day for my spouse and me.
Since our son’s house, where we are going to live, is not very large, we began sorting things out with the intention of reducing our belongings as much as possible, but this turned out to be surprisingly ① difficult. We can easily throw away things like clothes we no longer wear and old shoes, but it is different with the items that keep coming out of cardboard boxes at the back of the closet. “What could this be?” “Oh, this is from that time.” As we talk about the memories connected with things like these, time simply passes. And then we can no longer bring ourselves to throw them away.
For example, there is a small pair of yellow shoes. These were the first shoes our son ever wore. They remind me of when our son was little and make me feel deeply nostalgic. Our son, who seems to have been a child only yesterday, has now built a new house and asked us to live with him. At times I feel happy that he has grown into such a kind person, and at other times a little sad at how quickly time has passed…
When things such as family albums and old letters turn up, ② the same thing happens. Even one week before the move, we had not finished sorting things out and had hardly managed to reduce our belongings at all.
But we realized that things could not continue this way, so we decided to ③ change our thinking completely. The new house is not large, and even if some things are important to us, they probably will not be equally important to our son and his family. So we decided to throw away all our keepsakes except the albums. Our memories do not need to be stored in cardboard boxes; it is enough to keep them in our hearts.
Still, these past three weeks have been very enjoyable. That is because we were able to look back once again on the life we have lived. And we were also able to put our belongings in order. The moving truck we booked may be a little too large, but that is fine too.
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