ACCUMULATE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--ACCUMULATE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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The image that accompanied the prompt brought back memories of a very long time ago when I made some unwise decisions, my plans unexpectedly went south, and it was too late to undo them. 

I had given notice and needed to be out of my apartment in a couple of days, had closed down my business, and had given most of my stuff away, when the job I had been counting on fell through, as did the place where I was going to stay. 

My daughter in West Virginia graciously offered to let me stay with her, so not having anywhere else to go, that's where I headed, with nothing but what could be stuffed into my little two-door Ford Escort. Anything that didn't fit had to be given away as well.

A choice needed to be made. In my hurry to pack and get ready to move, I had not had a chance to finish sorting through a large pile of accumulated paperwork that included several little scraps that had notes scribbled on them. I could not bring myself to dump them, in case it might contain something important like a phone number or address that hadn't been added to my address book, so I just put it all in a large plastic trashbag. And now, because of the amount of space that bagful of accumulated papers was taking up, I had to leave some things behind that I really, really didn't want to, such as two down sleeping bags. 

Once I was settled at my daughter's house I started going through that bag. Most of the accumulated contents really could have been trashed, but there was one little scrap of paper among the many that had a friend's phone number and address on it, who I would not have been able to connect with had I lost it.  

There's a message here, I'm sure, about the value of one soul, but my five minutes are up, I'm way late for a Friday post, and my brain is feeling really tired, so maybe one of you can comment about what you think the analogy would be.