Time Raveler

Moving on, Moving in: Vignettes from the New Home

When I had lived in one place for 30 years or so and then found myself having to move as part of the fallout of an unwanted divorce, it was challenging for all sorts of reasons. One major challenge was just the adjustment to the new, smaller space, requiring careful editing to keep only the most precious and needful things. Many people have to do this, not just the recently divorced, but the widowed, people in financial difficulties, and those just having to adjust to a smaller space for any number of reasons.

My goal in my new living space, a condo, was to set up the best of my belongings into a little jewel box of a space, making it a pretty and delightful place to live in and to entertain visitors. It's a process--I'm still trying to figure out the best use of my space and where to put things, but I thought it would be fun to show some of my progress.

I've had pleasant surprises here: it is quieter than I expected, and I find I am comforted by seeing the tall trees outside my windows, lovely visions blue sky and green leaves, so I am not missing my yard so much as I thought I would. I have a few potted plants on my patio and will add more.

The small space has done an interesting enlargement of my soul. I've had to learn greater trust in God than ever since my marriage fell apart, when the dearest person of my heart no longer wanted me. I had to go back to my foundation, the Rock, the solid stone that supports me when all else is sinking sand. When I reluctantly went to live in this condo and left behind the years of memories in the old house, God blessed me with a newfound peace and a loveliness here that was quite marvelous.

Another thing I'm doing in my new space is using my "nice" things. I've always been a stickler for not waiting for a special occasion to get out the good china and silver, to put on perfume, to burn a scented candle, to buy flowers, etc. For my own wedding, I was given my grandmother's sterling cake and meat serving pieces, still in their original box with the tissue paper rotting around them, which she had received as a gift at her own wedding. I was appalled to learn that she never used them her entire life, never had an occasion "good enough" to get them out. I decided then and there not to let that sort of thing go on in my own life. So the good china tea cups are used daily here, with pleasure, along with a great many other lovely things.

But there are still packing boxes with stuff to make decisions about. A lot is going back to the old house, where an estate sale will take place to clear a lot of my old antique store merchandise since I no longer have any place to keep it.

Like I said, it's a work in progress--I put things away and then take them all out and move them somewhere else. People assure me that's a normal part of moving, but I guess it's been so long since I moved that I've forgotten that part. I'm relearning lots of things these days.