A little over a year ago our family moved. In 2006, when we completed our custom two story home, I envisioned we would remodel the kitchen or some other large project one day. It was supposed to be our final home. It was supposed to be the home we would host all our teens' friends for weekend gatherings, an anchor for our children to return to as they left home to become adults, and a place grandkids stayed the night and ate stacks of pancakes the next morning. Truthfully, that vision is bittersweet. Part of me mourns that vision while another part wants to tutor that younger me in learning to strive for something more. I had lived within a ten mile radius of that home all my life. It wasn't by mistake. I was fully aware I was playing safe.
In the late summer of 2019 we were in the backyard doing the yearly trimming of bushes and preparing for the fall when something whispered to my heart that I would not be doing this again the following year. For several years my daughter had been saying that we should move and I was always quick to tell her that "moving is a BIG deal and she would hate the process, I promise". But, in this moment, that bigness started to shrink a little.
Several weeks later, my hubby and I were heading out on our 25th anniversary motorcycle trip. It had been a dream of his since the beginning of our marriage. Things were rocky 25 years in and this trip was going to make us or break us. We were not quite sure about all the details except that we had 10 days. We had no idea how many miles we could manage in a day, but our plan was to make it to Montana and if we turned around came right back then great.
We made it to the Missoula Montana KOA the second night and went on to cross Canada and pass through 9 states. We got a hotel about every third night and camped the rest. We had purchased light weight tent, sleeping bag, mattress, and cooking gear to carry with us on the motorcycle.
About the third or fourth night as we were putting up the tent as a large bus like RV was beeping its way into place across the campground. It occurred to me that we had everything that RV had. We had a warm comfy place to sleep, a place to cook our food, and we even had an Ipad full of shows to watch. We began to speak about this revelation daily. Our large home with room to spare started to lose its appeal. By December, our house was on the market and we were ready to move on, simplify, and downsize.
I had found the perfect place, just a few miles away in the same city. It was perfect. I was in love. It would require another build, our fourth (yuck), but I was totally up for it. Then, the house didn't sell. The worldwide pandemic was a factor but home around us were selling within weeks of listing. Ours sat. We lowered our price a couple of times, it sat. By this time I was getting really unsettled. I had felt my intuition tell me that this move would happen. In my heart I had already moved on.
I was meeting with a colleague in mid June of 2020 who was very intuitive and her advice was that maybe we hadn't found the right place yet. WHAT?? I had the place. I loved my place, but as I drove home I started to feel that she may have been right. I called our agent and told her to start looking at some other places. Long story short, we settled on a place and were sold and out of our home less than two months later.
This new home was much smaller with a tiny yard to care for and just enough room to have only what we needed. We got rid of soooo much stuff. It was amazing and liberating. I had to use my GPS to get anywhere. When we looked for placed to eat I had no idea how far away 3 miles was in reference to back home. McDonald's was just always on the corner across from Smith's. I took some real concentration every time I went out.
It was interesting that my practice started to grow once I moved. My learning skyrocketed and my confidence in knowing I could help others feel better grew.
So, here I am. Home has new meaning for me. My hubby and I were on a bike ride around the lake just minuted from our new home when I mentioned that this place feels like more of an adventure than home to me but that my definition of home had changed. It is inside me. It is my passion and my purpose. Home is where I share love, the healing kind of love, and that feels right
for me. Home Sweet Home.