Almost everyone agrees that moving is a very annoying thing. You have to take everything out of its place and, in the process, rethink everything you have (“do I really need this?” occurs to me a dozen times a day) in addition to having boxes everywhere with semi-essentials packed: “mom, where is this thing?”, “ahhhhhh… maybe in a box somewhere???”. I lose track of where everything is, there is a certain mental confusion and in the end I am desperate for time to pass quickly and I start to daydream, eagerly wishing that the moving truck arrives quickly and frees me from this mess.
But with each move I make, both experience and practice make the process faster, simpler, and more efficient. In seven years of marriage, my husband and I have moved five times, and next month we will be moving together for the ninth time. This move has been particularly painful (I forgot to mention that I suffer with each move. I get attached to places, people, my children’s school, our routine, friends, the house, the city). Burlington is especially beautiful and charming, with Lake Champlain and all the surrounding mountainous greenery. The summer is extremely mild, and in the winter, with a good jacket, you can live peacefully and enjoy sports such as alpine and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, telemarking, among others. I fell in love with cross-country skiing because it involves exploring the mountain valleys, often making the first marks in the freshly fallen snow with my skis while breathing in the morning scent in the cold air. The kids spent their Sundays downhill skiing, and within a matter of weeks, they both surpassed our abilities. One of them loves skiing in terrain parks, and the other is all about breaking the downhill speed record—much to the dismay of his parents.
I find myself putting it off and procrastinating and rationalizing my lack of desire to pack. The thought of saying goodbye to this house in the center of this city that I love so much haunts me and I loathe the fact that the kids’ last day of school is so close. As I meditated this past week, I realized that yes, this is the end of a good phase of life but I have come to the realization that I am starting a new life. Isn’t that what the saying goes, “new house, new life”? The opportunity to live multiple lives is incredible if you can let go of the drama.
And how many people have the chance to experience different lives? Life in the country, in the suburbs, in a cramped apartment, in a large house, a house with a zip line that went from top to bottom in the garden, a house in the city where there was a lake and where it snowed a lot and where the children learned to love skiing. It’s true, the reality is that life is fluid and nothing stays the same, changes are mandatory, but each change and each place and each stage comes with a different and necessary learning. And so, we grow.