Mobile

Moving has always been difficult for me.  It's the rootless feeling and the uncertainty of change, not to mention change of address madness.  It gets easier as I get older, but still, I'd rather not.  As I anticipate me next move, and hopefully the last one for awhile, I'm struck by how many people I now know are in this fluid state and all for such different reasons.

My family is currently searching for a place to own so that we have some control and certainty over the critical process of our aging and some say over where we would like to live.  Our town, like many, is changing so rapid that people are being out priced or out spent about these decisions.  Rentals are high and higher, and prospective home buyers are being out spent by those who have cash.  And then their are a few couples I know who seem to be separating.  Half of these twosomes will be seeking a separate home for at least a short while.  Their distance show their commitment to changing what's gone wrong in their relationships.  Kids, of course, suffer because they have m resistance to change times ten.
The eldest members of my extended family are contemplating the moment when they leave their homes for some sort of assisted living.  They too are resisting this most unavoidable but but inevitable decision.  So here we are in the same tub, wondering how this will all play out.
Unlike past experiences, I intend to live in the moment and resist my temptation to awfulize...I think...I hope.
Moving makes me put m life in perspective too.
Thinking about refugees, the dispossessed, the war-torn, and those running for their lives, I have no right to claim anxiety.  I get that.  I think, too, about the contrast between those moving away from neighbors and those moving away from people or toward their own autonomy.  Both face uncertainty, maybe exhilaration, at some point later down the road.
When I used to move years ago, I'd start with boxing up all my books and records.  If either were not shelved, I knew I meant business.  In this age of email and I-Phones, I wonder if we feel less unconnected when we move.  Something to keep in mind.
Moving, for me now starts with more downsizing and I must admit I am enjoying that because it underscores more new beginnings.  Unburdening myself from furniture, rugs, more books and recordings, and some of the material possessions I identified as "impossible to live without" for some now unknown reason.
What to keep and what to move on?  Everything.