Moving On

Getting a new idea is one thing. Letting an old idea go is another.

Sometimes I've found old ideas have to go away, disappear to make room for new ideas to form. Sort of like moving from one home to another, I think. To give the new place a fair chance at becoming a true home, a lot of old stuff has to be jettisoned. To make room for new relationships, new perspectives, even new traditions. These are the building blocks of home – relationships, perspectives and traditions.

Family will always be as near as the phone, car, plane or internet. Communication is the key as opposed to physical proximity.

Friends – old and new – document our journey through life. Some friends are with us forever while others come and go temporarily as well as permanently. There is a season for friends. We fill their needs and they ours. Needs change. And friends do as well. It is a natural progression. Often hard to understand but natural just the same. Change.

This quote popped out at me the other day:

“The first step to getting what you want is having the courage to get rid of what you don’t.” ~Anonymous

First of all what I want needs defining. Second of all, without the first I don’t have a clue what it is I don’t need to get rid of. So defining the want is the first step.

What do I want? Well, the first items that emerge are these: sense of belonging, sense of place, a feeling of future role here and real potential to grow it, a budding sense of new friends ready to link arms in whatever enterprise we find attractive.

I guess this is a way of defining ‘meaning’.  For me that includes a good church home, a friendly neighborhood, and a community that embraces volunteerism and participation. I think it also includes a community that has a sense of itself and its forward momentum to meet the future constructively. All of these elements give a sense of vibe to the new surroundings. And that is well and good.

We need to make room for it, however. Even the guts to make the decision to make the move, to pull up stakes and take a risk to encounter change head on. This must be the ‘courage’ mentioned in the quote. The willingness to overcome the obstructions in making a change possible. That would be the first thing to get rid of, eh?

Next on the disposal list are household goods that are totally unneeded – new space smaller, new life pattern simpler and less needy of glitter. Does the car fit the need or do we manufacture need to demand the car we want to drive? Smaller is better, less obtrusive, and far cheaper; functional ought not define costly or cheap!

The extra chairs, or silver and crystal; the oriental rugs, the spare bedrooms gathering dust; these are all elements unneeded in simpler living. Not a home chosen for solitariness, but one of involvement and purpose – that is the essence of finding a new place for home.

The need to move on may not be voluntary but it nonetheless provides an opportunity for a new beginning that is healthy if we are ready for it. There are those among our friends who understand this point well; there are those who don’t. That reminds me of another quote:

“The ones who say ‘you can’t’ and ‘you won’t’ are probably the ones scared that ‘you will’.”  ~ Author Unknown

They are not the ones making the decisions. I am. We are. And so the future beckons with many changes. Even at this late age it beckons with a distant glimmer suggesting good things to come. A new adventure is dawning for us. In a few months we will launch the new journey.

Exciting and alluring. Just as the future ought to be! 

October 16, 2013