One More Move, Time to Cherish, Time to Remember .

It is 2 AM and here I am.  Why?  Moving is definitely harder as time marches on.. My hands ache from twisting the mop, arms are sore from pulling and stretching and so forth. Moving was physically difficult in my twenties but NOW, challenging is hardly appropriate.  However the time spent in the past months doing flexibility and strengthening work is paying off.  I can still move!....however some Advil is past due.
 You add to the necessary moving  tasks a bit of heat. (the air conditioning will not be connected until Tues.) and this adds a new dimension.  Wet t-shirt contest does not begin to describe what one looks like after moping floors in an entire house. (there is no carpeting by design)

My aches and pains awakened me but the solitude of the chaotic apartment in its transition state is soothing.  The clock is ticking reminding me how many places it has resided and how great it will be in its new home

I can hear the cat grooming herself, a peaceful and relaxing sound, seldom actually heard. Now she is purring while grooming, reminiscent of what I think would be my reaction to sinking into a lovely bubble bath. 

More than forty years ago I started on the first of my moves. 

Wisconsin to Fort Huchauca AZ.  I packed everything we owned into our VW Beetle, squeezed out a small space (even with the top of my seat for Missy, our mutt pup) and off I went.  Barley 21 years old and moving off across the country.  Too young and dumb to understand what an undertaking this was for a small town girl.  Driving across the country (alone) was an adventure and not as dangerous then for a young woman alone.

Did I have a glimmer then, that this would be only the first of many moves, many states?  No, but it did set the idea that there was a huge world and country to see.  It banished my fears of the unknown to the extent that to this day I love to explore new places and I am still driving off many times without a destination, now, just to see what is there.

That was the first and easiest of all the moves.  The contents of my life were in that auto, now it is in a van,  The van is filled with memories of a life: the loves, memories, pains, discoveries and hopes.  This week I will sort my out my life in things while I relive the intangible memories,  that accompany the things.  It will be a week of aches, tears and smiles and I look forward to the challenge.

Memorial Day 2012, a time to remember those that made my life as I know it possible,  God Bless them all.