I’ve continued to shred documents. This is part of the great purge- getting rid of the shit. It’s been an eye opening experience to go through the old boxes and really decide what is needed and what isn’t. I have every cancelled check I’ve written, in numeric order, since 1991. I can track where I lived and what I ate for the past 16 years. The question I have to ask myself is “Is that really necessary?”

During the dark years (heaviest drinking time until 1997) I can say for certainty that I ate a lot of Dominos Pizza and bounced a lot of checks. There are large checks to individuals and I have no idea what they’re for. Since I didn’t have a lot of money you’d think they would stand out. $2,500 hundred to some guy named Tim? Since I don’t have breast implants (or enlargements of any kind) I can rule that out. Tim apparently did something for me that cost some cash.

So hours were spent in front of a shredding machine dropping each check in so some meth mouth teenagers doesn’t rifle through my garbage. Did you know that one of the ingredients in making meth is the same chemical that erases pen off old checks so they can be forged- how convenient is that! It’s almost as though God wants meth addicts to forge checks to pay for their habit. In recovery we call this a “a God thing” and would follow it up with a quick “It’s God doing for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.”

It’s all about simplifying and getting rid of the excess baggage (not the emotion excess baggage- I’m keeping that forever and ever). I have bags and bags of that baggage in the truck ready for the dump.