Three Peas in a Pod

7/31/10 Paper mâché pea pod, trashed

Three hundred sixty-four days ago, I began the Downsizing Challenge by thinking of family. The first item I parted with was a stuffed animal, given to my nephew James, who had the good sense to have a birthday on Day 1 of the Challenge.

That's serendipity. Read on for more.

Today, I wrap the whole experiment up with another family downsize: a paper mâché pea pod crafted by my mother and given to us at our pre-Chase baby shower.

I believe it was my sister Katie who said Joanna and I were "two peas in a pod" and that became one of the themes of the party. Our cake had fondant pea pods on top of it, and every guest got a paperwhite bulb with two glass beads in the flowerpot representing two peas. The centerpiece was this oversized paper mâché pea pod, which has remained front and center in our lives ever since.

Back in the Casco Cabin, we placed it on the windowsill above the sink, the place with the highest sight-count in the entire house.

When we moved into our temporary digs on Sebago Lake, the pea pod came with us, and took up residence there on the kitchen window sill.

For the drive across country, I put it on the dashboard of my car, where it slid off into my father's lap every time I took a left-hand turn. After 300 miles, I finally taped it down, and then it successfully led the way to Denver.

And here, in our apartment, it occupied a position of honor on the kitchen counter, a constant reminder of the love that undergirds my life.

Through eight months of downsizing, knick knacks fell left and right, but the pea pod survived.

I don't part with homemade gifts from my mother lightly. Just ask Joanna about the giant foam core Red Sox cat that mom created for me after the Red Sox won the '04 World Series. That ain't going anywhere.

But, I needed something truly significant for today, the final day of the Challenge.

Chase was born on January 15, and, of course, it changed my life.

Joanna and I will be together for the next sixty-two years (I'm definitely living to 100), but we'll never just be two peas in a pod anymore. With the Cajun/Colorado/Maine Critter around, we're now officially three peas in a pod.

This morning, this little triple team took a drive over to 2089 Uinta Street, the site of our future home. On the final day of downsizing, it made sense to visit the location of the biggest upsize of my life. And guess what? The construction crew broke ground yesterday. As this year-long odyssey comes to a close, the next big chapter of these three peas' lives begins.

That's the serendipity I was talking about. "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

We took the pea pod along to officially bid it goodbye. (Although, rather than trashing it, Chase seemed pretty intent on trying to eat it.)

Of course, ultimately, even the house doesn't matter. Like the pea pod, it's just a thing, and if there's one lesson that the Downsizing Challenge has taught me, it's that things just aren't that important.

I've got Joanna and Chase and, a little farther away, better family and friends than any man deserves.

As long as I have all of those people, I can let anything else go.

It turns out, when you've got enough love, downsizing is really easy.

Thank you, Dear Readers, for a great year.