Filling The Heart/ Filling The Soul
I’ve been trying to understand why this move has felt so good and relatively easy emotionally for all of us. It’s a huge hassle to move, and we haven’t gotten great sleep, and it’s good to get our own belongings back, but considering we vacated our Reston home on July 18th and then we moved from pillar to post until July 30th, you would expect we’d all be a little more emotionally frazzled.
Then I thought about how and where we spent those 12 days.
It began with Chris and Hayden coming to spend the evening with us loading up that last pod. It was long, hot, mind-numbing work, but Hayden kept our crew laughing and giggling and wrestling for hours while Chris went from a day of mowing out at Massadoah to hauling furniture like he did it for a living. A long day for him, and he did it with good will and great humor and tremendous generosity. That was the beginning of refreshing my spirit. Buddie and I were so grateful for his presence.
Then, we went from our empty, shell-of-a-house, to Paula, Kelly, Kate, and Betty. Their beautiful, comfortable, cozy home was our first haven. We shared meals and laughter and time, plus much Wii playing, so everyone was thrilled. More healing of the soul.
From there the children and I headed out for Mom’s while Buds set out for Nashville. He stayed with Z and A, which felt like going back to his roots. When he and Z first started the business, every other week for a very long time was spent in their basement as he flew back and forth between Iowa and Virginia.
As for the four of us, going to Mom’s is a trip to Comfort Land. She takes care of and opens her home to us in the nonjudgemental, “I’m just so glad you are here,” caring way that is uniquely her own. I could tell her I was going to set something on fire in the middle of the living room, and she’d talk through the idea with me. We also left Nutmeg there to visit for a month, and she settled in quickly, which helped a great deal, too.
Next, to the Chandler’s! Always a place of great joy and fun for all of us, and they are the sort of friends that bring out our very best selves. Being with Todd and Gina makes me want to do more, be more, learn more, give more. Being friends with someone for 24 years can do that to you. It helps that our crew adores and admires their crew.
Plus, Gina puts up with my incessant need to have projects to do. It makes me feel so valued and helpful, which goes a long way toward upping my spirit.
We finally left the Chandlers and headed for Nashville. As always, the kids were great on the drive and we kept our misadventures to a minimum. It was such a relief to arrive at A and Z’s beautiful new home and pile out of the car to play with cousins. I know it was stressful for them, but having family move somewhere 2 weeks before you do to work out all the kinks is definitely something I would recommend to anyone.
Though thinking about our friends in Reston will still make my eyes tingle, I’m so grateful to all of you who helped make this move an exciting, relatively painless adventure. We won’t forget.
