Moving On

I meet a lot of people in transit, moving/on their way to a new place. The road warriors who spend their work periods in hotels are not a new phenomenon. Nor are the movers a new fad. What has seemed to change is the increase of distances traveled and drastic moves due to jobs.

Growing up, it seemed every six years we would find ourselves relocating due to my father's job. I still to this day get an urge to move at that same time period. I enjoyed this moving trend. It was hard at moments to release the old life and start a new one. Keeping in touch and new life in old relationships is still a struggle. Technology (and facebook) to combat this problem. However, the chance to wipe the slate clean or experience something new holds great appeal. Home has been more related to my strongest and intense ties. Home has also revolved around those in my life, especially family. With the spread of immediate family and the death of my mother, home has held far less meaning for me in the last few years. If I were pressed, I could not actually tell you where home truly is for me anymore. This, however, is not the point of this blog, merely a related rabbit trail.

What is the direction is people's reactions to the upheavel caused by these drastic moves. The last family move I was the last to leave town, not by much. I made it a little longer than 6 years there. I moved plenty during those years though. It seemd the last 5 or so years I moved into different homes for one reason or another. I added roommates, subtracted roommates, changed roommates entirely, lived in a duplex, a house, a trailer, an apartment, the dorms, and the family house for a while. I dreaded moving after a while. Across town or across the country, moving can be a taxing business. You commit upheavel to your home and your life. Status quo is unsettled. This process isn't necessairily always bad. It can be quite good, in fact, to reexamine your world periodically. When set out for a new town and state, I landed in my present home and haven't moved. I can honestly say it feels so good. Who I lived with may have changed, but I haven't had to pack up and move across town in a couple of years now.

I waxed eloquent to basically say that I get the upheavel that comes with changing your home, the base of your life, so often whether it be across town or across the country. Moving has almost become expected with jobs these days. Companies relocating bases and eliminating office locations not only adds to personal stability with moves but also with the uncertainty of what lies down the road. A sense of adventure is certainly required to go through these situations with faith and a sense of humor.

As a single person, a major move wouldn't bother me at this point. I am even thinking about moving countries in a year or two. My roots are not planted here, nor were there ever plans to plant my roots here. This has always been a short stop along my life, my "blessed desert." When I see others who are leaving what they know for the unknown, my heart goes out to them. It is a whole different thing to have established a life you enjoy and be forced to leave it. There is joy in the journey no matter how gray the sky is. The whole cloud isn't black and angry. You just may not be able to see the white bits from your perspective. The death of a place/people/life that you have planted your roots in is something to be mourned though. Of course, you can never go back to how it was. Everything happens for a reason. I guess the key is to appreciate every moment.

I don't have some large, important moral to this story. Today you get more of my random musings of life observed. Find joy and solace in your world today and bless someone else who crosses your path.