Letting go.
I hold the simple karahi with both hands. We bought these aluminum wok-like pans in the bazaar during our first months in Pakistan.
They sit, hidden behind other pots in the cabinet. Rarely used lately.
It’s time.
Hesitate
But I hesitate.
Memories rise up from back in the day. When these were put to everyday use.
Making one-pot meals over a one-burner countertop stove in Murree.
Stir-fries and curries in our Karachi kitchen.
Even macaroni and cheese with colorful fresh peas. When cheese could be found—once in the tiny grocery shop on the mountain, more often in our city supermarket.
Simple meals
Simple meals and family gatherings are tied to these plain, stained vessels.
How many times did I scour cookbooks for made-from-scratch recipes?
Figuring out substitutes for several regular items on my grocery list.
And finding tasty ways to combine available ingredients in the one karahi.
Local cookbooks
A few local cookbooks stand out in my memory. Especially Cooking in Pakistan: A Guide to Vegetarian Cookery by two Seventh Day Adventist women. We heard they tested each recipe on willing tasters in Murree.
My copy is smudged, torn, and worn. Still sitting on the kitchen shelf.
Following their recipes, I learned to experiment with new spices when the only vegetable in the market was a small squash called tinda*. Or okra.
Letting go
Back to the decision at hand.
So silly—with our abundance of cookware—to feel this sadness. Like letting go of a simple pan will scatter the memories tied to it.
But holding the aluminum karahi in my hands reminds me.
Those cooking adventures really did happen. In the plain, uncomplicated kitchens of a mountain town and a desert city.
Seasons
In this life, through various seasons of change, moving, or decluttering, letting go is part of the package.
Releasing stuff.
Even simple karahi pans.
On this day, I choose to smile with remembrance of another day and time and place.
Distant now.
But loved.
What about you?
Do you have ordinary items that hold strong memories of another time and place in your life? Is letting go hard for you? What helps you release “stuff” along the journey?
Related
New patterns – Travelers – Sorting memories – Collecting dust – Taste of home – Temporary nest – Seasons change – Broken bowl and the Potter – *Description and picture of tinda.
24 replies on “Letting go”
Love this. Many thoughts that I need to organize.
Please do…and I want to hear those thoughts!😊
I’ve always struggled with this issue…the ‘sage’ advice from Depression era…’better keep that, you might need that’. Sentimental attachments are the worst. Ordinary items come and go, but those with memories attached remain.
I must admit, there have been times I finally tossed out something after keeping it “just in case”—and then, of course, a week later I suddenly needed that very thing😂😂
I go through seasons – sometimes I’m trying hard to clear things and other times I struggle with it. More recently, after helping to clear out belongings for someone else, I was prompted to look critically at what I’m using and donate or recycle what I’m not using. Most of it is not sentimental, but some things are hard!
I hear you, sister! Thanks for sharing.
I can so resonate with your karahi! For me it was cleaning out my phone of all the friends and acquaintance I had not called in years.
This sounds like my next project 👀
Yes I sometimes hold on to the past, wishing for it again. But I know He wants me to focus on where I am now and how I can be used by Him.
And He is Faithful and True, guiding us in the here and now. Thank you for sharing.
When I was caring for my mother as she was dying, I was washing a Pyrex dish with slots shaped like ears of corn. My mom used to make corn bread. I never had shaped corn bread any place else. As I washed the dish, floods of memories of family meals were going through my head and how my mom would soon not be with us but we could enjoy using that dish. At that moment the dish broke in half. I gasped and stood at the sink holding half a dish in one hand trying to process what just happened. The Lord was faithful and redirected my thoughts from the dish to my mom. Things are not the real treasures , people are and the treasure of my mom will not break or ever be lost.
Thank you for sharing this sudden “letting go” experience 🥺 and how the Lord comforted you so tenderly in that moment. He is Faithful and True.
I would have encouraged you to donate those pans to an international family, who often cannot find similar pans they used in their home country. For several years, I volunteered with an organization on a military post with 90-100 international officers from all over the world (we helped provide household items for their use for their year’s stay & they returned items to us at the end). You’d be surprised how many unusual requests we received from the wives—such as your pans!
Well, I recently read an article that made me hesitate to do that. Namely lead content that’s been found in them. Thankfully, in our city there are many Asian stores where these types of pots/pans are sold…hopefully with no lead content!! Thanks for your service to the international community!
Right there with you, sister! Have done a lot of letting go in the past several years. In the end, it’s all just “stuff” just as much as our American stuff is! Still, those memories keep us clinging on. It’s a bittersweet reality of this life.
Indeed it is. Thanks for sharing!
A dear friend from Australia taught me the word “relinquish” and that has helped. Relinquishing back to the One who gave me the stuff as well as the experiences that are now precious memories.
A great word. Thanks for sharing this😊
I am in that season as well, Susan. You wrote beautifully about the tension of sweet memories and present day realities. #LettingGo is hard, but important. Blessings.
“…the tension of sweet memories and present day realities “—yes! Thanks for sharing. And the Lord bless you in your season, sister.
I have a hard time letting go. In fact, I have a feeling that many things I’ve carefully packed to use when I retire will be thrown or given away when I finally unpack!! I think especially if it has a significance to it. Mine would be more likely mugs or things like that than pans, though. I have a tendency to want to keep history, but I also know if I ever pass on, I’m not sure others will want it so I need to do something with it.
I’m thankful you are conscious and appreciative of history. We learn to let go, but we also need to remember and learn from the past.
God bless you, as you let go. It’s not easy. I seem to keep treasures from my loved ones to hold when I can’t hold their hands anymore. Like souvenirs from our memories together.
I certainly have many of those😊. Thank you for sharing, sister.