Weronika Dutko

When you look at the urbex pictures of abandoned mansions, you might be shocked that some people, just like that, abandoned gorgeous properties along with all the furnishings and belongings. They just got up and left, never coming back, leaving the building in their past, not selling it. Shame a building in such good neat condition has been closed down. All that equipment that could be used went to waste. Something so significant happened that they left their place and they never went back to look after the house they once hoped would be their happy place and have had precious memories in.

Leaving a mansion seems a bizarre situation that we will never experience or relate to ourselves due to the housing situation of the average person nowadays. However, I don't think it's quite like that. I believe that every single person owns an abandoned mansion or even several of them.

How many times have we abandoned a wish, a hobby, an idea, a value we believe in, our limits, ourselves or another person? I don't think it's an exaggeration to compare these things to a mansion at all. What could be as beautiful as setting mental and physical boundaries? What could be as luxurious as taking care of yourself and your needs? What could be as precious as investing time and willingness in another person whom we abandoned because we preferred to do it ourselves out of fear that they would abandon us?

Like a person leaving a mansion, get up and move on, making an effort to build a new, safe space. We settle anew with a feeling of lightness, which gives us the energy to plan a fresh future in a new property. Happy with the fresh start and absorbed in the new surroundings, we are moving forward, leaving something of value in the past, condemning it to decay.

The significant things we left behind, like the mansion never fully used, will stay ours, until something forces us to go back and clean it up. It is necessary to look through the things left behind, take what is valuable, and sell what is not needed along with the property. Until this is done, the property will be on file as our property and the fact that we are not currently using it is irrelevant.

We can't move forward until we face what we left behind in the past and get things done that should have been done. No matter how difficult the reason something was left behind, we own our own mansions not even being aware of owing them.