It’s been about two weeks since I last wrote in my blog. I apologize. I was moving to a new location.

Now we all know the thrills and spills (and some pretty big spills) of moving. Finding the right location and choosing your new home (known as the thrills part). Then there’s the actual moving. It usually starts out harmless with packing a few boxes neatly and writing legibly on the box with the sharpie you found in the junk drawer. We all have a junk drawer. I bet there’s one battery and a sharpie in that drawer somewhere. Brand new tape gun and a fresh roll of box tape and I’m ready to go. Not so fast. By the 3rd box, the anxiety sets in.

When the anxiety starts to set in, it’s at this point you’re going to decided to get rid of everything…well maybe not everything…no…everything. Deep breath. You can do this. Now the cleansing begins. Do I need this? Do I need that? What is that and where did I get it? Suddenly you realize how you actually spend your money. That’s where reality takes its first positive turn. If I haven’t seen it in three months (or 7 years which was the case for most of this stuff), out it goes. That worked for the first ten minutes. Then I started to find a reason why at some point I’ll need that. If my daughter wasn’t there to redirect me, I would have reasoned with every piece. After a brief discussion, I made the choice to rent a dumpster. Not a small one either. A 10 yard dumpster was delivered that very morning. By evening, it was filled. Now we were on a roll…sort of.

The worst part about moving is opening another door and realizing you have your own retail store in the pantry. Here we go again. Now this was becoming a full fledged cleansing. I was giving things away and throwing things out. The pantry was becoming empty little by little. Each piece got heavier than the last. Time for a tag sale. The following weekend we had a tag sale and it went pretty well. The best part is having someone tell you how down on their luck they are and they want you to cut them this incredible deal. They want you to cut them a deal on stuff they’ll stick in their closet until they decide they too have to move. It’s then they hate you for giving them such a deal. Justice is served on the deal.

Did I mention I was moving a 3 bedroom ranch into a one bedroom apartment? Important piece. I had some real work ahead of me. My daughter and I worked everyday after work and on our days off. She was a real angel and worked into the evenings and her days off. We both knew what was ahead of us. Work during the day became the easy part. We decided to take a break and go to the apartment and see if we could envision where everything was going to go. My first reaction when I saw this place was “Thumblina lived here”. How was I going to do this? My place was built in the 1800’s and the mantles and wood trimmings (or moldings) are beautiful. It was a charming atmosphere and it has a beautiful fireplace. Every window has a sitting bench. We decided that my collection of prints from various Museums of art would be the perfect decor. I have beautiful prints from Boston, New York and Portland, Maine. Each room has a different picture. Now it was starting to come together. We knew exactly where everything was going to go.

When I returned with a load of boxes from the house, I saw a bottle of wine and a card by my door. The wine was red and called “Primal Roots”.That was an interesting name. I knew I was going to like this place. The card was a welcoming card from my new neighbor. With neighbors like this, it was already home. Gingerbread would be the perfect way to say hello to everyone.

Back to the move. Ugh. As the big stuff was out, it came down to the little things and the cabinets and that JUNK drawer. What is this stuff?? A caller ID from the 80’s? There’s that shoe lace! What could possibly be on this roll of film?? More wedding cakes?? Samuel Smith bottle opener? Now that’s not junk. I took a deep breath and threw the drawer contents out (except for the bottle opener). Having the dumpster dropped in a convenient location made for a great game of toss and hit the dumpster. You have to have some fun. And then you have to take time to reflect on what the lesson really is here.

My lesson in this move was material items don’t have the value I thought they once had. Hence the decision to let the house go to sale. Throwing out as much as we did and giving away brand new items to people I thought would appreciate it was much easier than I had ever hoped. I thought I needed to hang on to these items because someday I would need them. Someday. Well, in 7 years, someday hadn’t arrived. Out they went. I feel great! I feel like I’ve made plenty of room for the good energy to arrive. The energy in the new home is very good. My two cats have settled in very quickly. It’s nice of them to allow me to live here with them. They have showed me every nook and cranny in this place. Just look at the picture. Tell me they aren’t settled in.

The last box has been filled. I can’t believe it’s over. What a feeling! What an accomplishment. What an incredibly lucky mom I am to have a daughter who held me up through this process.

I had a great deal of support from a special friend that I truly appreciate. That friend who was so kind to share her beautiful parsley and Swiss chard from her personal garden. A very wise woman who knew the right thing to say and made perfect sense every time. Friends like this are very few and far between. To my dear friends who have the most interesting cat (aside from mine of course) and the perfect taste in jazz that certainly got me through the unpacking. I’m very thankful for the people in my life who did help and were there for us throughout this process. A move is when you realize who your friends really are.

A move is when you realize that you have learned the most important lesson in life. It’s not about the materials in life you acquire but the lessons about trust and love…and tossing out the caller ID from the 80’s.