I have moved. It has been heart wrenching and exciting in equal measure. The senior living place I have moved to is lovely and so are the people I’ve met, staff and residents alike. Kudos to my nephew whose unfailing care and concern have made this difficult move manageable.
Kudos as well to Zen Movers, a moving company located in Santa Fe. The team members were absolute angels. The three young men who did the actual moving were careful, kind, and professional.
And thanks to the couple coordinating the estate sale. I appreciate their expertise and willingness to take on the arduous task of organizing decades of accumulated stuff and finding buyers who can make new memories with what was left behind.
The difficult thing about moving, aside from the emotional toll that is unavoidable for most of us, the toughest decisions come from deciding what to take and what to leave behind. I’m not much of a ‘thing’ person so this is less of a problem for me than for most. When I board the train for Heaven, be it tomorrow or a decade from now (or more 😊), I don’t want to leave non-functional stuff for others to get rid of. You won’t find a storage unit full of oddities anywhere with my name on it. The functional items I brought with me create a homey, creative atmosphere where I can write, dabble in painting, and read.
I also hope to do a little entertaining as a means of getting to know my neighbors. I recognize faces, but names are still golden nuggets of knowledge beyond my ability to capture.
I am mostly unpacked, but much remains to be done, like hanging paintings and family photos. Therein lie the memories.
A SUNDAY REFLECTION
The scene outside my window
is not of deer and elk
like it was on the home place,
instead I see apartments
in neat New Mexico colors
and southwest styles.
And oddly, it makes me smile.
Traffic is a constant stream
all hours of the day and night,
unlike my little hometown
where you can get anywhere
in ten minutes or less.
But there’s no place I need to be
or anything in particular I want to see.
Penny was a trifle worse for the wear. Not terribly – but lovingly – shabby. Annetta held her close. This would be the last time Penny would be with her. She’d done her job; she’d protected Annetta and absorbed her tears when she was alone and afraid. Now it was time for Penny to be there for someone else, someone more alone and afraid than Annetta had ever been. Annetta still had Mom and Kit. Samantha had no one. Yes, there were grownups around her, including her mother, but they paid Samantha no mind except to order her around or tell her to get lost or… Annetta didn’t want to think what else Samantha had to run from when her mommy was too out of it to protect her.
Like little children. What does that mean? Well, children are truthful because they have yet to learn how to lie. They are loving because they have yet to learn how to hate. They are trusting because they have yet to learn suspicion. They are kind because they have yet to learn how to be cruel. We can take a positive lesson from the negative things we have learned along life’s way. In this season of celebration, I choose to let go of all that holds me back, or has the potential to mire me in fear and frustration. I choose to be more truthful, loving, trusting and kind, gifts easily passed along, and they don’t cost a thing.
