Sacred Possessions

Our culture tends put a value on things. Over the past year and some, I've tried to be better about materialism and getting rid of excess stuff. Then I started thinking about the odd assorted items that carry a sort of sacredness to me. I walked around the house, picking up the first few things that immediately came to mind and put them on a table. The picture is below:
Starting at the left and going around clockwise, the first thing is a small notebook with a card on top. The card is my first non-commercial radio license I got in 1993 when I became a DJ for Irondequoit High School's radio station, WIRQ. The notebook is where I used to diligently transcribe quotes and lyrics that appealed to me throughout high school and college.

Next is a matchbox car that my friend, Brian, gave me on my 16th birthday after saying for days leading up to the day, "I'm getting you a car you can drive!" Underneath that are the house keys for my grandma's former house and my grandparent's home.

To the right is a selection of stones and a shell that I had found or bought over the years. Near the bottom is the rosary I received for my first communion. To the left of that is a heart-shaped stone I found on the playground as a little kid. And to the left of that is a stone I picked up on the north point of Prince Edward Island in May 2003.

Aside from the rosary, none of the items have any truly religious meaning, but they still mean something to me. Most of them represent a memory or a certain period in my life. After I took the picture, I put them all on a shelf of our built-in bookcases in our living room. There they will gather a little less dust than they might have in the corners I had to retrieve them from.