I LOVE this and need this quote at this particular moment. I am sitting in the comfort of my little home that we have lived in for nearly 11 years. We raised our daughter here, have blue jay friends that fly into our door to say hello, our park-like yard surrounded by trees, paths that we have walked every single day, beautiful mountain views that peak into our windows…priceless memories, family close by, security, comfort, support…but I sit here with a for sale sign out my front window. Why? because life needs movement. Life needs challenge and change. It has been a hard decision to leave behind this little piece of heaven, but my heart wants what it truly needs.
With the whole past year of corona virus, uncertainty, stagnation, fear, insecurity…when our daughter decided she was going to head to Oregon for college, we knew we would want to be there to support her. We decided early on that she would live at a distance from us (1.5 hours) so she could find her wings, have her own growth, her own challenges and change, but that if she needed us, we would be there.
With the uncertainty of the past year…Corona, families separated by boarders, friends dying or in the hospital, my own personal experience of being in the hospital and still struggling to breathe every morning, I have an even greater need to have my little family together—whatever that looks like.
Don’t get me wrong, it has been a wave of emotions for both me and my husband, but little Godwinks have continued to help us along. The past year and a half my husband has been taking close care of his Mom, but three weeks ago she got married unexpectedly. The very next day, one of the two little homes that my husband and daughter looked at in person months before on the Oregon coast, went back up for sale and they took our offer the same day (which in this current, crazy market is unheard of—our agent was genuinely shocked). We decided we were going to Oregon.
It will be hard to leave so many things that we love and appreciate, but we also know there are always things to love everywhere you go. I was talking to one of my new family members (from this new marriage three weeks ago) and she was sharing how she couldn’t just up and leave the support and security. She said, “Aren’t you nervous?” I genuinely said, “I am most worried about how I will handle the weather.” I shared with her that we have previously moved to Arizona, both sides of Idaho, the other side of Oregon and that we are just trying to cover the entire West. Smile. Smile. I told her, “You can always find things to love everywhere you go.” You truly can! I am genuinely excited to experience living near the ocean and trying out all the restaurants that are meant for vacationers. I think living near a tourist town will have its highlights and we will be able to experience a lot of new things. As William Cowper says, “Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.”
I am excited to have new views and perspectives, to take pictures of things I have never seen before, to walk paths that are new, to make friends with Sandpipers and Seals, to walk beaches and take selfies with light houses, to learn about the beauty of secret places only Oregon has to offer. Sure, there will be things that are unfamiliar, uncomfortable, challenging, but with those comes a deeper place of discomfort that challenges your very being and you have to find that something within you that rises up and goes beyond the fear and discomfort. That part of you that yearns to grow—even just a little.
I hold this quote very close to my heart. I find comfort in the knowing that change is a friend and that when we can lean in and embrace that very idea, beautiful things happen.
I pray for calm, I pray for guidance, I pray for peace to follow the change and see where it leads. Hopeful it will lead to beautiful landscapes that fill my heart with nothing but love and light. May we all pray for that…places that bring us to the windows within our soul, the very essence of true growth and ideally to the heart of our truest purpose.
Change does that…it breaks us open and helps us beautifully blossom, fully.
Peace, Love and Light to you today. -H
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