A New Move

We moved last year. Wild! I am completely disoriented in life. (More so than usual)

The contractors have mostly finished their clanging and hammering and sawing although it feels like the whole place continues to exist in a cloud of drywall dust. I was in charge of site supervision, which mostly consisted of hiding in my office with the cats, while listening to the contractor on the phone with Jon, in his heavy Portuguese accent, saying things like “the problem is…” and ending with “the floor is not level.”

We are settling in. It was a chaotic December, with the busy-ness of the shop, final concerts and recitals, Secret Santas, festive gatherings. Naomi’s violin teacher, who plays in the Canadian Opera Company’s orchestra, gave us tickets to the Nutcracker, which was so beautiful and touching and somewhat late on a Wednesday evening that Naomi fell asleep five minutes in. I enjoyed it.

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In any case, we are flying our way through so many firsts: first family movie night, first nap, first big pot of bone soup, first candlelight McDonalds. We are figuring out where things are going to go in the pantry, figuring out where the litter box smells the least toxic, figuring out which light switches Junia needs stools for, and the industrial humidifiers at full blast. So are we! Blasting away.

The journey of life. What a gift it is, to be able to ride it for as long as we have. No one is promised tomorrow, and yet here I am, making plans for it, strategizing the holds on the various library cards of this family, dreaming up shelves on the walls, wondering about the garden in the spring.

With so much to look forward to, why would anyone want to look back? No, not me. Those bittersweet lasts might turn me into a pillar of salt.