Moving Day

For the third time in six years, Liz and I have 'packed out' to a new state. We're getting pretty good at the tactical aspects of this: we packed boxes by number, and hired professional loaders to load a 26-foot rental truck. Today we started our drive to Youngstown in the truck and a car, and have hired unloaders at the other end when we arrive. Maybe we're getting too good at this. We used exactly the number of boxes we had, and the truck was quite completely filled.

We may have our technique down well, but the larger emotional and psychic aspects of this uprooting are not easy. It's hard to leave the Cities, and Minnesota, a place we've come to love. It's hard to leave friends -- mostly new friends, and some old -- and begin again. The move recalls the losses and gains, fears and hopes of previous moves: how will this new situation work out, who will we befriend, what new possibilities might emerge, what old possibilities must finally be closed out.

It's been a stressful time. Yesterday, our little dog tore her ACL in her left hind leg, and she is hopping around on three legs. We took her to the vet, who could only offer her pain and inflammation relief before the move. We hope we can offer better care when we are settled. While Ceili's injury was certainly an accident, (she was racing out the back door), I wonder how much of our stress connected with her. Sometimes coincidences are just coincidences, and sometimes they're not.