Full Room to Empty Echo

We’re in the process of moving as you may have heard, but we’ve been able to take it nice and slow, which my back appreciates. That was the idea when we started. Move one room or area at a time and avoid the chaos of a stacked box maze in the new house. It’s hard enough to rearrange furniture without the room being full of stuff you have to maneuver around. So, we created a plan of attack to optimize our efforts and create a semblance of organization. First area to be moved over was the garage, which just so happened to be the most discombobulated space in the old house outside of my desk area. We figured if we could move the garage first, organizing it as we did, then if we had to store other boxes in there temporarily, then nothing would get lost in the shuffle.

Once the garage was in place, we decided to move the back porch and yard furniture. And the plants. Oh my god at the number of plants the girls have accumulated in four years. We almost needed a U-Haul just for the potted greenery and it’s still not all moved over.

From there it was the living room areas and my study. Couches, coffee tables, book shelves–our friend, Bill, came over Saturday and we loaded his truck, both of our vans and a Dodge Caliber four different times and made the journey over the bridge. The garage, though organized, was once again stacked with boxes as was the dining room. We also moved the 9-year-old’s bedroom while she was visiting her dad. It made it easier to weed through the years of accumulated toys and junk. It’s the same trick the girls use on me when they want to go through my collection of supplies and papers and throw things away. For the record, I am not a hoarder. I am a collector.

By the time we called it quits Saturday evening and ordered Chinese because we couldn’t find our pots and pans, the only rooms still left at the old domicile were the bedrooms and half a kitchen. Even the dining room and all of its chairs were gone. I had nowhere to sit! I couldn’t focus enough to write. I was desperately in need of the return of structure and routine in my life in order to function. I wandered the half-empty house aimlessly, lost as to what I should be doing, even though I knew what needed done. I felt like a ghost–in the world, but not really a part of it.

To make matters even more disjointed, our bedrooms were still set up like normal. Nothing had changed and I could hide in there as if nothing in the rest of the house had vanished. Yet, when I opened my bedroom door, I was faced with the echo of a completely empty room. It was like stepping out of one dimension and into another.

There are moments in life very similar to that feeling. You’ve suffered a loss in your family due to divorce or death and while at work you may trick yourself into thinking everything is normal, when you walk through your front door it is to an empty echo. Nothing is where it was. Your routine is thrown completely off-kilter and you now sit at the breakfast table alone, staring at an empty chair. Loss of a career, ending of a friendship–these things change our lives and leave echoes where a fullness used to reside. However, as we begin to organize and decorate the new house, the echoes vanish and life returns to a new normal. We couldn’t remain standing in the empty room, reliving the memories that vibrated off the walls. It was time to move on and make new memories, to have more adventures, and meet new neighbors. It’s a time to be excited at what waits around the corner.

And we are.

Very excited.

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