My family stared at me from around the dining room table as I made my declaration. This would be the Year of the Purge! Life had changed. Mom moved in when dad died, the children returned from college, and our home business closed. We now had boxes of receipts, mom and dad’s possessions, and a temporary dorm in my living room. In addition, the memory on my smart phone was almost full and I was contemplating additional storage and a bigger cloud for computer items. You get the picture. Life was full and we were busy. In a hectic world, we surround ourselves with belongings and can save everything except TIME! We run at an insane pace from day to day. We meet deadlines, deal with crisis, cross tasks off our list and when necessary, find more storage space and move on. But what cannot be stored is family, friends, relationships or special moments with people we love. Moments which fly by faster and faster and escape if we let them. Our days are not guaranteed. At times, physical, digital, and emotional clutter get in the way. You need to purge to receive! Chances are, you will never find time to review the many social medial posts, thousands of email or television programs you have saved and you may not need all twenty photos of the cat with the same toy in different positions. We made the Year of the Purge a family project. In doing so, we organized, donated and recycled material things. We created space, redefined our needs and saved money. But what did we really accomplish? We cherished beautiful moments and spent quality time together. As we went through boxes, we laughed over favorite memories, cried at photos of our loved ones, embraced favorite toys and gifts and rekindled all the special feelings we experienced the first time around. We created another layer of memories and took a few remembrance photos. Oh, and my son had special shirts made up. Year of the Purge 2014, but that’s okay, perhaps we’ll make it an annual event. It was worth it. Remember, in all ways, you have to give in order to receive.