The end of the academic year is nearly here and graduation from another degree is only a few days away. One sign that the study is mostly over is that my sewing machine once again has pride of place in the middle of my desk, rather than the landslide of books and paperwork which has been there of late.
My sewing machine also represents what comes after graduation; packing, sorting and decision making about what to take to PNG, what to store in Australia for ‘one day’ and what to get rid of. As much as I am a fan of the idea of simplicity, I am hopeless at it in practice and am a habitual hoarder.
One question in the packing, is if I send my sewing machine to PNG or not. I have had my own machine since early high school. It is a cheap machine and noisy, but it is the machine I have learnt to sew on. On it I have gone from making small items, to making clothing by carefully following a pattern, to sometimes using a pattern as an indication for what I might like to do (a bit like my approach to recipes). Most days I am wearing at least one thing I have sewn myself. Although I will probably leave my machine behind and borrow from someone else, or maybe even buy one in PNG, it is a big step for me to be without a sewing machine.
There are many things I will need to learn to be without, living in a developing nation. The hardest will be the things which are personal. Books are personal to me, as is sewing.
Flying in PNG is charged by weight...including for myself (now there is an incentive to weight loss!). Books, sewing machines; these are heavy. My budget it limited. There are many decisions to be made as to what comes and what stays as I prepare to move overseas. Thankfully I have friends who can help advise me, yet at the end of the day I have to decide for myself. It is the start of the letting go I will need to do a lot of. Please pray for my wisdom and peace in all of this.
