Today Sean and I cleaned out the last of anything we had saved in storage here in Virginia.

My dad had loaned us a large sea container to store the remnants of our past life that was on the back of his 30 acre property.

Each time we would return to Virginia we would grab a few missing items from what we called “the green box”  Most of the stuff was furniture that didn’t sell at our big a$$ yard sale we had almost four years ago. There were boxes of marketing materials, sample prints and frames that used to hang in the sales room of our our custom built studio. A few backdrops were stacked inside, that I held onto in case I ever felt like I needed more than the beach for a studio.

During the first couple years when we would retrieve items from the green box, it would stir up sour memories. An avalanche of emotion would usually erupt. I would walk around in a funk in the days that followed, as memories lingered of giving up a dream that I had been building for 8 years.

During this trip, we decided we were done picking through the past. We have established a new life on Tybee. One that we love and that has become quite simple when it comes to owning material things.

On this trip, we made it a priority to sweep the box clean.

On Tuesday morning after sipping coffee and watching a spectacular sunrise over the front meadow, Sean and I took one of Dad’s dump trucks and headed to the back of the property. One by one we sorted through the remaining boxes and plastic bins. Most we turned upside down and emptied  straight onto the burn pile that sits next to the box. This is where dad regularly burns brush and debris.

I called a local photographer friend to see if she wanted some backdrops and a few salvaged props. We set aside a van full of stuff for her, this made me happy that she can make use of them in her studio.

The last item to top the pile to burn was the sort-of-famous “Wen McNally Sofa” this was an iconic piece in my studio. It was the traveling sofa that made weekly appearances to every Mountain View home football game for 4 years. Where students would have pictures taken in our photobooth on the sofa as we raised money for the school’s sports programs. Then, in the studio, High school seniors and family clients frequently requested “the sofa” for their portrait sessions. The best photo shoot with the sofa Sean actually caught on video.

It did not take long for the pile of my past to begin to smolder on the hot coals. Within minutes there was cracking and popping echoing in the forest as the sofa was engulfed in flames that shot fifteen feet into the air.

I never realized how therapeutic this action would be. But now I finally feel like we have moved on. Something we have strived to do over the past four years.

I won’t lie, it has been a process. The friendships that we have made on Tybee have made the transition from Northern Virginia rat race to Tybee Island life easier for us. We treasure our relationships both old and new.

A friend told me the other day that he thought there were people that read my blog and can’t believe that we were all of the sudden happy after moving to Tybee. I told him, I choose to write about the happy times. That doesn’t mean there have not been times along the way that have been hard, unsatisfying or struggling to make ends meet. We certainly had those days too. But even so, we had a new hope when we moved here. There was something different. I think Tybee is an amazing place and I do think that has much to do with it. But more than that we came to a new place in our lives. A new commitment to each other, a new way of approaching life together.

We accepted simplicity into our life. In turn peace and tranquility followed. We were able to clear our heads and focus on what is really the most important… Our family and each other.

Do you have a green box of your past? Is it time to sweep it clean and move on letting the past be the past?