You must change your purse.

Rilke did not say that. Mom said, "Don't spend all your money on a purse, as you will have nothing to carry in it." Mom also bought me a "good leather purse" when I got married, predicting accurately that it would be a very long time before I could afford to buy another.

I did not spend all my money on this life-changing purse, but I can fit pretty much all my retirement savings inside it. And archaic Apollo would go for the cross-body strap.

It is indeed time to change my life. I need to hit the road and travel lighter. I need to get out of Dodge and go west. Wish I could take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints, but a condo is not so easy to shed, especially full of so much....  So envious of the caterpillar that makes a chrysalis and emerges to fly away.

© 2013 Nancy L. Ruder