From the moment the decision was made to sell our home and move across the country, to this moment as I sit in my new home to write, there was a span of nearly a year. What was accomplished in that year, essentially creating a whole new life, required considerable effort but no struggle. Struggle is a heavy thing, quite distinct from meeting goals and accomplishing tasks that tire us out. That’s effort. I already knew the difference between the two but to have experienced it “in living color” has been quite miraculous, almost magical.
It took two months to prepare our Western home to sell and another three months to get it sold. In that time I looked online for our new home, and was in touch with our Eastern realtor, almost constantly. Yet the space in which we are now happily ensconced did not show up on the market until two weeks before our home sold. The day we made an offer on it we received an offer on the home we needed to sell. That’s sometimes referred to as “God’s timing”. It may not be agreeable to us but it gets us where we want and need to be not a moment sooner than necessary.
For those of you less than comfortable with the “G-word”, this process is also called Synchrony. It’s not that my months of online research yielded nothing. When we saw the neighborhood and home where we wanted to spend (at least) the next decade, we recognized it and were able to take timely, and successful, actions to make it our own.
The past year represented a huge transition and involved lots of goodbyes and letting go of people and places. We took care to make the good-byes mindful and meaningful. The months of waiting for our house to sell were spent with cherished friends in memorable places.
The surprise to me is that at no point was I scared to enter an uncertain future. That I have two loving companions, my husband and my dog, is not to be discounted as I speak to this point. I respect the fact that when we journey alone fear is more likely to shadow us, even as we move forward. Most times we move forward anyway because our old life has become unsuitable, like a beloved, but no longer serviceable, pair of shoes.
The more transitions we have made in our lives, the easier it is to relax and trust when we find ourselves in yet another one. I’ve been telling people that our move involved a “ridiculous” amount of work. The rewards we’re now enjoying – proximity to family, new friends, a right-sized home, and a lovely neighborhood – make the travail to get here disappear in the rear view mirror.
The shift that triggered this major life change occurred at a deep level and rose to the surface with certainty only when it was time to act. I’m very grateful that we were paying attention to these inner promptings and had the courage and fortitude to follow through on them. Trust that “wherever you go, there you are”. (Jon Kabat-Zinn)
Inspiration!!!
..“wherever you go, there you are”..thank you for sharing your grace
Beautiful, Meg. Thank you!
Hope all is great in new home Meg. Best to you.
Beautiful. Miss you.
So grateful that a couple of the days in your yearlong transition were spent in Memphis. Love