The Burke family has now been down south for about a month now. So far it has been a wonderful transition and everyone is doing well. However, there are several things that moving to a new setting has caused us to remember. Some life lessons based on our experiences so far . . .
Moving and unpacking is a process. Hopefully not a lifelong process.
We purposefully are leaving certain items in storage and certain boxes packed. However, it was never my intention leave this many boxes packed. There are still half a dozen boxes in the living room. A few in the bedroom. Some more stacked in the dining room. It has become a process of . . . "What do we need?" "Where is it?" Thankfully it was a fairly organized packing system. In thinking and preparing for this move I wanted to be highly organized. I feel as though I was fairly successful. It is just so difficult to reorganize and drastically downsize all at the same time.
It's hard to feel settled when you know the house you're in isn't a permanent location.
Part of the dilemma of unpacking is complicated by the intention of only renting a house for one year before buying. By the time we feel settled we'll hopefully be moving to another house in the area. It's living in limbo. One foot in a rent house and the other in a box. At the same time we desperately need to establish roots, routines and a sense of home for our girls.
All sunscreen is not created equal.
The sunscreen that was adequate up north is not adequate down south. We learned that lesson in a very hard way at the beach this last week. We used the same sunscreen that provided good protection up north. Five out of seven of us left the beach with tremendous sunburns. I'll let you guess which five were suffering!
Much of the difficulty of any transition is exacerbated by the fact that Kevin and I are introverts.
This may surprise some people. Then, there are others that have known this all along. We love being around people. We really do, I promise! It's just that it takes an enormous amount of our energy to do so. This is especially true and even more intense when we're around so many people that are new to us. We're currently looking for a balance between reaching out to develop those relationships and honing in on our family and personal time. So, if I'm looking a little weary don't worry. It is probably due to some super fantastic awesome relationship building with the people around me!
Community is incredibly important.
Even though I'm feed and rejuvenated by quality alone time, community is the anchor for me in the world. Community and "Familying" takes time and you must be intentional about forming it. (For more about Familying check out a previous post. http://ajourneybutnotalone.blogspot.com/2014/10/familying-is-relational-process-that.html) This is nothing that can be forced or rushed. It must develop through intentional time, conversations, care for one another and trust. Being here, we're starting over with developing a local community and doing Familying with them. We still have our established groups of Familying. We love them just as much as we always have. It just looks different with them now that we're in another geographic location. Starting again with the people around us leads me to greatly grieve the Famlying Community we had surrounding us up north. It also repeats the cycle of grief for the Familying Community we miss so much in our hometown. It's drawing up all the mixed emotions of loss of community and excitement of forming new community. In the midst of it all, these communities, new and old, are extremely important to us.
Those are just a few of the lessons we've been reminded of so far. It has been quite the adventure for the first month. We'll see what new things await us in the coming weeks. I'm sure there is much to learn, experience and develop.
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