I can feel the gap widening.

I rented a storage unit when I left for DC last summer. In it, I packed the Christmas tree and ornaments. Baby blankets and toddler toys. Pictures that the kids made at daycare. A mop and an empty suitcase. Things I wanted to keep but I didn’t need to take across the country with me.

 But now I’m back in Chicago. The kitchen dishes are in the cupboards, and the bathroom supplies are unpacked. But my clothes, the paintings that I’ve picked up over the last four years, my favorite books, the diploma that the kids had framed for me all need to fit into that same 5x5 unit while I’m gone. These are the things I use to claim a space as my own.

 Now as I’m preparing to leave, I’m wondering does the difference between what I stored then and what I’m storing now even matter?