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Things are in the saddle,
And ride mankind.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Things old
things new
things to be discarded
things to be saved.
things shopworn
things spiffy
things I’ll never miss
things I can’t live without.
— Elaine Pinkerton

When moving last spring, I parted with thousands of things. Large and small. Inevitably some were items I might regret giving away. Despite good intentions, I would now and then throw out a “thing” I should have kept. But in the frenzy of clearing out and relocating, how could that have been avoided?

What to do with things to be discarded? Donate, donate, donate. It took weeks. My friend Karla had been storing some of my things awaiting donation. Yesterday she mentioned that she’d just taken my beloved New Yorker cartoon to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter’s thrift store, a resale mecca better known as “The Cat.”

On this rainy Saturday morning, I discovered in my new apartment a perfect spot for the framed cartoon. Could I get it back? Was it too late? The thrift store was just a mile away and I drove there just as the doors were opening. The woman in charge told me to look through dozens of paintings, posters and artwork stacked against one wall. Meanwhile, she disappeared into a back storage room.

Not very long afterwards, she emerged with my Whitney Darrow cartoon “I can’t say I like the looks of this.” Hooray! It was mine once again. “No, you don’t need to buy it back again,” the store lady told me. Free? Hmmm…that didn’t seem quite right. My eye caught a small Christmas tree with pictures of cats and dogs, price tags attached, residents of the local animal shelter. I made a donation for the animals and walked out with my precious cartoon. 

Elaine Pinkerton Coleman is a Santa Fe, New Mexico author who recently moved into community living. When her old house sells and things are more sorted out she plans to write a memoir or another novel in the Ganesh Girls series. Or both. Join her on monthly Mondays for views of life through adoption colored glasses. Your comments are invited! She can be reached from this site or by emailing her at elaine.coleman2013@gmail.com.