On this date

April 11, 2012

Sad moment on my way to bed:   After watching a movie, I brought my snack dishes to the kitchen as I’ve done a thousand times. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach at the thought of leaving this place, my home of 40 years. It’s like a death or like a terminal disease - so hard.

New beginnings require endings of the old. I often focus on the excitement of the new, but I also choose to embrace the sadness of leaving the old behind.

I know that I have to leave one place to get to another, but the leaving is fraught with all kinds of obstacles: uncertainty, fears, sadness & grieving.

...

April 11, 2017

Moving to yet another new place and leaving yet another familiar place - albeit with very little sadness in this leaving. On this date in 2017, I was feeling just okay with that front room... until we moved my rocking chairs in.  Then the place started to feel like home.  

The lovely Boston rocker was a wedding gift from my man.  The big old squeaky one was the one my mom rocked me in when I was a babe - and then my little ones.  More recently my first-born rocked her little one in it.  I'm so glad those chairs survived the downsizing.

By the way, Bob did eventually tackle that front room and turned it into something amazing. 

April 11, 2025

Once again on this date, the cherished rocking chairs have yet another new home - in the historical house that Bob rescued after it had been abandoned for many years.

When I remember that momentary gut-punch on this date in 2012 I'm so glad that we were able to move past it... To say good-bye to that beloved spot and head out to new beginnings... More than we ever could have imagined. 

New beginnings

New day

New week

New month

New year

New notebook

New calendar

New ideas and dreams

Fresh perspective - I hope

…

Call me weird - or just retired, but I do love Monday mornings.

A new day and a new week always feel like a fresh start.

So you can imagine my delight when I was able to add a couple lines to my journal this morning!  New week, new month, and new year all on the same day!

… 

But still old things wait for me to finish them…

Or to let them go…

And so I wish for wisdom to know which things deserve which kinds of action.

Which I guess boils down to which things deserve space in my life.

May I pay attention for that wisdom and fresh perspective.

January 2024

Month-end

Looking back, looking ahead.

Grieve the losses.

Sadness, failures, discouragement, defeat.

Celebrate the good stuff.

The opportunities, the options, the possibilities.

The victories.

Steps taken, even the tiny ones.

The beginnings and the endings.

The starting and maybe especially the finishing.

Completions.

Conclusions.

Letting go.

Closure.

The end of a chapter.

Turning a page.

Things done well.

Things barely done.

What works?  What doesn’t?

What worked this past month?

What needs to change for the coming one?

Why do I keep noticing the date?

August 31…

Why does it catch my attention and give me pause?

Maybe it reminds me of my feelings about September, which has always felt like a new year.  When you are teachers and have kids in school, that’s the way life goes.  Maybe it will always feel that way.

We seem to need interludes.

Week-ends.

Maybe month-ends even more

A pause to note. To notice. To reflect.

To notate the shift. 

An alternative to just marking time.

Good-bye, sweet summer.

Good-bye, August.

Happy month-end.

Hello, new month. New year.

New season.

New opportunities. New unknowns.

Fresh starts.

Fresh focus.

Fresh gratitude that life goes on.

Here’s to more beginnings and endings.

Here’s to another new chapter.

Happy month-end to us.

September New Year

Historically September has marked a new year for me.  After college Bob and I became teachers thereby establishing the fact that we would live by the rhythm of the school calendar for most of our lives.  

During the years when I was a SAHM, I noticed that September became an almost sacred time for me.  As Dad and the kids (and foster kids and foreign-exchange students) headed back to school for the fall, my schedule once again contained a bit of routine.  I had the luxury of deciding what to do with at least some of my time.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love, love, LOVED summer vacation and the privilege and freedom to hang with the family, but the introvert in me became aware how precious and valuable it was to have a bit of solitary discretionary time. 

After Bob retired from teaching and began a second career, we found ourselves still celebrating that rhythm - particularly after-school snack time!  Seriously.  

All these years later, September still feels like a shift. Turning a corner.  A new beginning. A fresh start.  A time for new projects.  Interestingly we have actually re-engaged with the school year calendar during our recent work with incoming International students - a schedule that feels very familiar to us.

Turns out we are not the only ones who thinks in terms of the September new year.  Writer Jon Acuff hosts a September challenge each year.  This year's focus was a five-day "Back to..." challenge and was very helpful. 

I chose to get "back to" reading - specifically real books.  In order to make this more likely to happen, I decided to create space for it by starting my evening routine earlier so that I could get up earlier - to read.  (Why didn't I just read in the evening?  Tried that.  Too fidgety. Lack of focus.)  But this time I was a bit more intentional with a cozy reading spot... and it worked!  

I read an entire book in these last ten days.  And I learned a bunch of new stuff from our trusty leader as well as from others in the online group.  I am at this very moment strategizing and setting realistic goals for my own personal 90-day challenge during the next three months!  And I met a new writing friend who lives in France.  Bonus!

Yay for new beginnings and fresh starts.

Yay for second (and third) chances.

Yay for friends and strangers who can encourage and offer wisdom and perspective.

Home ownership: one month in

Hard to believe that it has been a month already since we got the keys for the house. 

The much-anticipated keys signify so much - most notably home ownership as well as entry into a new community.

Home ownership. 

Again.

When we decided to sell the tree farm we assumed that we might one day again own property somewhere, but we also learned to appreciate the freedom from being tied down so we were unsure when that day might come.  

I guess it kinda’ snuck up on us.  There we were pretty content in the middle of a one-year lease on a little apartment and all of a sudden we were looking at old houses.  

We had both commented that we might be happy to stay in the apartment indefinitely, but once we began the house-hunting process, we both realized how ready we were to move on!

Hubby had enjoyed the reprieve from the responsibilities of being a land owner. He kinda’ loved not having to shovel snow or cut firewood.  He had especially reveled in not being a landlord and being the one that got the call in the middle of the night for some needed repair.  But now after a few years of that freedom, he was beginning to feel ready for a new project so he found himself looking for a fixer-upper.

I was content with many aspects of apartment life. I had taken advantage of so many things that I discovered about life in a small town and I had done everything I could think of to try to fit in there.  But I had to admit that I had not found a sense of connection or community there for all my efforts.  It was only after we began to meet people in Flint that I began to find my niche - and once we bought this house the connection has increased almost exponentially.

In fact, that has been one of the biggest and happiest surprises for me - the sense of community and connection.  And it began to happen so quickly.  The first week we were here we noticed that we had already connected with more people here than in the entire past year at the apartment complex. Our hearts are warmed by all the gestures of welcome that come our way.

All things new

A new day
A new week

A new month

A new place

A new house

A new city

A new street
A new neighborhood

A new community

New neighbors

New connections

New friends

New flowers

New walking options

New changes

New challenges

New wonderings

New projects

New opportunities

A new world 

A new life

A whole new adventure