Fill cardboard box. Tape up cardboard box. Label cardboard box. Stack in corner. Fill next cardboard box….

I hate packing up all our belongings. I haven’t done any packing for three days, but this afternoon I got up my courage again and started in.

The actual packing, the boxes and the tape, isn’t so bad. Handling things we own, one by one, is more complicated. I pick up this photograph and hear that conversation we were having. I pack up those odd-shaped rocks and hear the ocean. I find the box still mostly packed from our last move, and hear our late-night conversations with our housemates.

Packing books is easier. When I pick up a handful to put in a box, all I hear are snippets of what each book has to say.

Maybe I’ll go pack some books.