The Quiet Freedom of Not Clinging
For a long time, I didn’t think of myself as someone who was overly attached to things. I didn’t collect much. I had moved through minimalist phases. I thought I was pretty light. But when something I valued was threatened or taken away (a carefully curated item, a way of being, even a belief) something deeper in me would tighten. That’s when I started noticing: ownership wasn’t just about stuff. It was about identity. We don’t just own our homes or our phones. We “own” our style, our taste in music, our achievements, our pain. Even phrases like “my anxiety,” “my truth,” or “my story” carry more than just information— they carry a sense of me . We define ourselves by what we have, what we’ve been through, and what we can claim. It’s subtle, but powerful. And it creates a quiet kind of emotional pressure. Because once your identity is wrapped up in what you own—physically or psychologically—it becomes very hard to let any of it go. You might not walk around thinking, “I’m cl...