Letting Go Bloghop

Today's the release day for Kyra Lennon's new novella, If I Let You Go. It's free on Amazon for today only, so quick, go get a copy!

The rules:
"Was there a time when you had to let go of someone or something? How did it make you feel? How did you handle it? Or if that's too personal - which I completely understand - how about writing a piece of flash fiction? The only rules are - obviously - it has to be related to letting go, and please keep it to a maximum of 500 words."

I'm very, very bad at letting things go. Not grudges (believe it or not, I'm actually quite good at letting go of those), not people, but things. Possessions. Stuffed animals from my childhood or school assignments from the 1990s or old computers and computer bits. Stupid stuff that the intellectual part of me knows I'll never use again or never want to use again.

I want to be clear. I'm not a hoarder... but just barely. Sometimes it feels like the only thing that keeps me from being one is a severe lack of free space and claustrophobia (irrational fears win out over irrational attachments any day). I can get rid of things that are obviously garbage, like hastily scribbled notes of no consequence and things that are broken beyond repair (though my definition of "beyond repair" might be looser than some). But if there's even a chance there might be practical value or, heaven forbid, sentimental value, I have a hard time parting with it.

To some extent, I blame Disney for this. You can say what you will about whether they give little girls unrealistic expectations for their future or give people a false sense of what "true love" is, but I think the real problem with Disney movies are that they personify everything. Suddenly, my stupid childhood toys have sentience. How can you just throw something out that has sentience?! Damn you, Disney, for giving me empathy for things that have no feelings for me to share.

I also don't like change. I think the might have something to do with it too.

We all have our issues, I suppose. If this is the worst of mine, I'm probably doing okay... though I should probably keep an eye on it if I ever move into a bigger place.

Congrats on the new book release, Kyra!