Susan Pryke Writing and Communiciation Management

From a lifetime of memorabilia, I have selected this smooth, round stone with the word HOPE engraved on it. It joins the wicker chicken and the Christmas stocking in my suitcase: three survivors of the downsizing.

You see, the rules for parcel post have changed since the 1980s when I flitted back and forth between Canada and Australia like a gypsy. Back then, an entire year’s worth of souvenir-shopping could be sent by freighter for just $100. Mail carriers did not have rules about size and weight of parcels.

And now, when I am moving from one country to the other, Canada Post will not accept anything that is longer than an umbrella or bulkier than a ski boot. I can ship my books and photos. That’s it. The rest – an entire lifetime of things – must be condensed into two suitcases.

In the end I take little things: the paintings my friend sent as Christmas cards, a tiny, star-shaped prism that captures rainbows, the carnations that I carried on our wedding day.

As for the wicker chicken, it has been with us since Dave and I began. Like us, it has made this journey before. And so it shall sit again on a bench in Australia, a quirky symbol of promise, aspiration, love.

The Christmas stocking? An anomaly; a relic from childhood; thrown out in the first wave of virtuous cleansing. But at the last moment its red flannel cheeriness caught my heart and I snatched it back from the bin. It takes up very little room, after all.

And finally, this smooth, round stone. A silly little table favour received at a banquet. But its message sustained me during those long months when Dave and I were apart, me on one side of the world and he on the other.

I may need a talisman like this again some day.