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.