WHEN THE MOVE MOVES YOU is the topic for my blog today after moving to a different town and setting up a new home (or at least new to us) and thinking about all of the changes and how to react to those changes. Years ago, we discussed moving to my husband’s home town and I was a little hesitant. I came from a small town, Douglas, and I had become accustomed to a larger city. It was a double concern since not only is Tifton, even though larger than Douglas but I know very few people here. Now, that move has happened and we are settled in, I felt I would share some thoughts on how this move has moved me and Greg.
           
We started packing and culling a month before the move. I am not sure that was a good idea or not. It seems as if we have been moving for a couple of months and no moving should go on that length of time (grinning at how much “stuff” we had accumulated over the past 11 years) and even before then as we should have culled a lot before we moved to our last home. As we went through the attic items, a thought hit me when I saw things I thought were precious possessions and I realized I hadn’t even seen those items for 11 years and somehow I had not missed them. Of course, my heart was jubilant at their discovery. It seemed some sort of wonderment that I had made it through many years without knowing where this priceless treasure was. I began to feel the Antiques Roadshow excitement but then I realized they were still the same items I chose to place in the attic. Was this enlightenment teaching me something?
What I did find out was the longer it took to pack, the more I became willing to dispose or donate more and more items. The items’ importance became minimal as hours and boxes became maximal. I think the move was moving my internal relationship with material items.
As we entered the new home, I found myself, instead of feeling excited, I felt a little disappointed. It was not organized; it was not immaculate; it was not the fairy tale home I had envisioned. The move had moved me to emotional disarray. I had to act and act quickly. My daughter instinctively picked up on my anxiety and fell into cleaning and installing cleanliness into the drawers and cabinets. We started unpacking those mountains of boxes. My thought was why didn’t I cull more when I was packing. Did we really need all of that “stuff”?
As days progressed and we stayed determined to unpack and organize, we found Greg and I made a great team. He unpacked the boxes, bagged the packing paper and bubble wrap, and tore down the boxes for recycling. I found places to store and display all of the items we did bring (with some more culling as I went for donations). It began to come together and I began to see a home instead of a house. Our new home became our home and this reaction moved me into a peaceful place.
One of the symbols of our happy life in our former home was our yards filled with a lot of remembrance of my Mother’s green thumb and how she had shared her bounty with us. Of course, part of the sale was an agreement Greg would dig up some of each of the day lilies, spider lilies, and her rhododendron plants as well as some of Greg’s priced purchased ones. As the home came together, it was very important to have love in our yards. Missy had given as a house warming present a beautiful hibiscus, a bright and beautiful yellow so it had to be on display to bring Missy’s love into the yard too. I am happy to say, Greg found some help since it required grass removal and a new, bright day lily bed in our front yard. I smiled as I looked at it and thought The Millers are here.
In summary, I want to express a lesson I have learned during the “move that moved me”. We are given and things are taken in life. Some of those changes are good changes; others are sad changes and may have profound effects on our emotional state. What I learned is to allow life to move you. Staying in the same place, with importance placed on unimportant segments only allows dust to accumulate. Either dust those items off and use them or get rid of them. I use this as an example of word play. Life gives us experiences which we place on the shelves or attics of our minds. We can polish those experiences and use the lessons, good or bad, in our lives to enhance or beautify our world. If an experience is so painful, we tuck it away but not discard it; we are only accumulating dust on our lives. We can either place it into proper perspective or learn to walk away from its memory. REMEMBER: Live Life; Love Life; and Live Life to the Fullest by allowing yourself to be moved.
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