When Change Happens in Terms of Place...

Changes can force alterations and take one in interesting directions on uncharted paths.  We can't live life in terms of "might haves" or "ifs" or in looking backwards.  But sometimes, in the midst of transitions, we can't help but look back as we move forward.   Moving from here to there, I'm still in the place of between.  The (subjective) future is understood through the lense of the (subjective) past. Between is ok, by the way.

Things I might have had, if not for so many moves:

1. My Barbie doll (but really, I'm glad I threw her out).
2. A Pair of Staffordshire dogs, discarded for $100 in my Atlanta garage sale, that turned up in the New York City Armory Antique show with a $14,000 price tag.
3. Roller skates in boot form, a wooden tennis racquet with a warp-proofer thing on it
4. Insider status
5. My Nancy Drew books
6. A couple of paintings, good or bad
7. Letters I should have kept
8. Perhaps still a bridge group, a stitch n bitch group, several reading groups, a dinner club
9. Unaltered routines
10. Invitations to things from acquaintances
11. A lot of obligations -- showers, funerals, friendship rites
12. A circle of old friends with not much room for new friends
13. Knick-nacks and what-nots, of little sentimental value or no value
14. junk and full closets and habits that should have ended
15. An attic too full to consider
16. A garden dug deep into routine and subconscious
17. Knowing what is kept where
18. A present infused with the past
19. Comfort and boredom
20. Generational memory of place

Next...things gained and the enrichment of life through the process of uprooting...

Comments

[Kay Dennison]

Funny I'm still in the same town but I can attest that a move change in social status (divorce) can cause the loss of a lot of the same things. Sigh.