Monday, May 17, 2010

Packing Up


My house is a mess. Newspaper shreds flutter about and I can’t find anything. Three things I’ve already packed away (at the bottom of the box) are things I want today. Moving is tough stuff.

This move was not self-initiated. The mother ship decided I needed to be a West-coast girl. I decided I needed my job. And so the hubby and I uproot ourselves again. We’ll test the soil, water and light in a new habitat. It’s hard to yank myself out of ground I thought I would never leave.

Not all about the move is sad or unwelcome. We’ll be close to oceans and mountains and great mass transit. We dream new adventures. We let stuff go. We begin again.

I’d like to say that I balance this tension of excitement and loss. Some days I do. Some days I cry privately in 30-second bursts. I resist slipping away quietly and choose, instead, to say goodbye to friends. That hurts.

To get through, I do what I can. I’m more patient with the hubby (and myself). I tie up a few newspaper-wrapped teacups with ribbon. It will make me smile in a few weeks when I unpack the box and think about the people who drank tea with me.
~Stephanie W, for the Poplar Grove Muse

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for being so good to us and letting us say our proper good-byes. You have made a real difference in so many people lives Stephanie!

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  2. My readback line:

    We’ll test the soil, water and light in a new habitat.

    We are sad to see you go, but eager to hear of a new life in America's greenest city.... MKP

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  3. Beautifully written, but it makes me sad! I love you lots and will miss you lots!! Can't wait to see you this weekend.

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  4. Stephanie,
    I'm happy that I met you and shared some time with you through WWfaC. Having done these moves numerous times now, you captured it perfectly, this balance of looking forward and backward. I wish you well in your west coast chapter.
    Stacey

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