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Cleaning

I've been like a mad woman lately cleaning out my house. In the last six years I've managed to accumulate my fair share of extra possessions, and like trying to run with this extra twenty pounds on my body, I feel like this stuff is just weighing me down.

It's suffocating.

So I'm cleaning.

In the process of this cleaning, I came across some old pictures. They are the first pictures that I have of my "new" post-divorce life. The one that had me running half marathons and traveling to other continents and feeling for the first time in a long time that my life had a sense of excitement...and purpose...

...and

life.

Seeing those pictures stoked some long dormant feelings in me and left me longing again for those moments when I felt like the rest of my life was waiting for me. I started to say here that I don't feel like I'm lacking anything, but the truth is that I am.

In some ways, I have never felt this fulfilled. In others, I've never felt this empty. It's difficult to live such a dichotomy on a daily basis. Sometimes I wonder if these questions ever end.

In the meanwhile, I am thinking of the love that I've found in other countries. The adventures I've lived here and abroad. The moments I've shared here and stored in my heart that still make me smile. It's this crazy life that I've managed to piece together with moments filled with the most amazing people I've encountered.

The poetry.
The photos.
The kisses.
The plane tickets.

Yeah. That.

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