Moving

I don't think anyone could have prepared me for such an event in my life. I was so excited and had been wanting to move for years even when the children were young. That sense of adventure was always attached to the whole process in my own mind. Then after being in one house and one place for 21 years the time had come and just as fast as the thought occurred and was agreed upon we were relocated last week to a new city and new home.

The stress of moving didn't really hit until a few weeks before the actual move and then the grief that followed from leaving something that had been so familiar came in waves. Driving by the children's old school or going to the store would bring deep emotions of attachment that I didn't even realize were there. It wasn't until we found a home that I was able to transfer all my emotions  into new dreams of what was ahead of us once we moved.

The first few nights were okay but on the third night I awoke to the sound of water running through the house. I jumped out of bed sleepy eyed thinking the whole house was filled with water as we had just had the water heater replaced the day before. stumbling out into the living room I saw that the door was wide open as the sprinklers were going off in the front yard. It was then that I realized that my beloved pets could have easily slipped out in the middle of the night in a strange neighborhood. I immediately called, waking up my husband who quickly counted the number of heads in our house hold and realized we were one short. The kitten was gone!

As we searched the neighborhood in our pajamas and robes calling for our kitten at 2 am we heard a faint meow after 20 minutes. There in the bushes three houses down we found a very grateful and scared kitten wanting to go home in our arms. Once we got back to the house my husband went over how the door could have opened in the middle of the night. He came to the conclusion that it was the kitten who had discovered how to open the door. She had watched us use the lever handle which also opened the deadbolt in one motion as a precaution in case of a fire. It was a smart door handle but the kitten was smart too. After talking to the lock smith the next day we discovered that there were a few changes that needed to be made in the way the house was to be secured.

The day before I had also locked myself out of the house for three hours in the back yard. I had gone out to dry a towel on one of the lawn chairs at 2:30 in the afternoon. We had also placed a padlock on the gate as we have a pool so I was in a little bind in the Texas heat. Lucky for me we did have a pool so I was able to keep myself cooled off until my husband found me when he came home from work. I ignored his comment about how surprised he was that I had bought a new bathing suit and after I was drying off he realized it wasn't a bathing suit that I was swimming in.

All in all we are enjoying our new location and finding that we are learning a lot about the house that we are in. However I am observing my energy and my emotions as I open boxes placing things in their place in the house and how different the energy around me shifts. Each time I open a box I either have a wave of excitement to see something or a sadness of old memories that come flooding in recognizing all the new changes. I am learning that sometimes life can be bittersweet but in the end it is about how we react and process the whole experience. 

1st Photograph - Ana - Taos NM
2nd Photograph - Ana - Napa Valley CA
3rd Photograph - Steve - Napa Valley CA