Back To School

I admit it - I have a back to school mentality.  No spring cleaning for me.  Nope.  I clean when it's time to go back to school.  I don't have children in school anymore, unless you count my son who is a high school teacher.  Still,  the end of summer brings out the need for cleanliness, order and a clean slate.  This weekend, I decided to tackle my utility room.  You know what room that is.  It's the room where I used to have my sewing machine, where the children finger painted, where I keep my suitcases and Christmas decorations, as well as everything else for which I couldn't find a home.  I know I bit off a lot, but it is back to school.
At any rate, while I was organizing and purging, I came across a box of papers.  Not just any papers, but letters written to and by my son when he was at summer camp while his father and I were still married.  There were letters from me, from his father, and from my son.  They told a story of a happy time in our family, and they made me smile.  That's right, smile.  It was nice to remember.  I guess that's why I don't understand people who cut their former spouses out of family pictures, throw out all memorabilia that is from them or relates to them.  Don't for one minute think that my divorce was any better or easier than anyone else's, because it wasn't.   Think about it though.  Would you rather think that you wasted 10, 15, 20 or more years on something that was just terrible all the time, or would you prefer to know that there were good times and fond memories in that stage of your life?  Maybe you won't at first, when the pain is too great, but eventually you'll cherish those fond memories.  I don't know about you,  but life is too short to think you lived a large percentage of it in misery.  Here in the Trenches.